Workspace Wednesday | Project Life Journal Cards

I’m playing along with Workspace Wednesday this week.  I don’t know the exact origin of Workspace Wednesday, but if you search #workspacewednesday on social media, you will find lots of photos of people’s workspace and tabletops.  Marcy Penner does it on her blog, as does Ann Marie Espinoza.  My friend Melissa (Scrappy Jedi) also does Workspace Wednesday posts and I’ve been enjoying them quite a bit! 

Today I’ll show you how I changed the way I organize my Project Life journal cards.  To me, organization is all about ease of usage and functionality.  I had been keeping all my Project Life core kits and mini kits in their original boxes in one of my cubicles in my DIY Craft Island. 

As you can see, it was difficult to see what I had and pick cards to use in my Project Life album!  I saw how Barb Picinich organized her Studio Calico Project Life kit cards, and a wheel turned in my head.  I wanted to get those clear bins that she has.  But I already had these Sterilite stacking containers that I bought in bulk of 6 from Target.  I had two of them still empty, so I decided to use these instead, since the dimensions seem to suggest that this would work! 

The way I decided to organize the journal cards was to keep the cards from the same kit together.  Within the kits, I organized them by color. 

I’ve seen other people organize their journal cards by breaking them apart from the kits and just organizing them by color.  That’s not the way my brain works, lol.  I have limited scrapbooking time and I love to work from kits, even with Project Life.  I trust that the designers of the kits know a thing or two about color & design, and I like being able to pull different cards from the same kit and have it look pulled-together on my Project Life page.  I don’t want to spend time trying to figure out if this aqua color in this kit goes with this coral color from this other kit.  I just want to pick a kit or two and get to work!  This exact same mentality is true for scrapping paper 12x12 or 8.5x11 pages for me.  I usually work from a kit or a collection, because I already KNOW everything will go well together.  This is even true for digital scrapbooking.  I tend to be a “one-kit scrapper” when it comes to digital as well.  This is me.  This is how my brain works.  So therefore, this is how I should organize my stuff!  :)

I filled two of these baskets with my Project Life journal cards.  Now it will be very easy to flip through them and pick what I want to use!  The baskets have flip-down ledges so that they are stackable.  You can see I did that on the basket on the right.

Here they are, stacked together in my cubicle.

I tried fitting these containers side-by-side into my Raskog cart, but alas they are just slightly too wide to fit both onto a tier of the cart.  I feel great having them stacked in my DIY craft island cubicle though.  When I work on my Project Life pages, I can simply pull out the baskets and set them onto my big work table. 

Hope you’ve enjoyed having a look at my journal card organization.  I won’t be having a Workspace Wednesday post every Wednesday, but definitely on a regular basis as I organize my way around my craft studio. 

Read More »

Six Miles, Loads of Dirt, and a Haircut

Last Sunday night (2/16) Todd and I went to Burger Lounge in Hillcrest for dinner, followed by Songwriters Acoustic Night at Swedenborg Hall.

Burger Lounge is our favorite burger in San Diego.  Todd got a chance to try the limited time available elk burger.

The elk burger warranted a Todd Shot, apparently!

I had the Baby Lounge burger.  Just my size and right up my alley.  Gotta love it when the meat is so much bigger than the bun! 

Poster for Songwriters Acoustic Night.

Todd is friends with Pete, Jason, and Isaac, so it was great to see them all together on stage in one night!

They each sang a song, then circled back again and again.  Such a fun night of local music.

Todd got me a Roomba as an early birthday gift.  Because, as I say all the time:  vacuuming is the bane of my existence. 

It usually takes me an hour and ten minutes to vacuum the whole house.  I spend way too much time vacuuming every week.  The Roomba does all flooring surfaces too, so it will clean all our carpet and tile flooring.  It is really disgusting to find out how dirty your carpet/floors are though.  We vacuum regularly.  We vacuumed with our Dyson before turning the Roomba on.  The Roomba still got this much dirt and cat fur!

Not only is that gross… we programmed the Roomba to vacuum for an hour every day when we’re at work.  And every day this week, it has picked up this much dirt and fur!  I’m grossed out but at the same time so happy, ha ha.

We watched “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” this week.  I hadn’t seen it since like, college.  I had totally forgotten the plot.  You know one of my favorite movies from last year was “Star Trek Into Darkness”.  I’ve seen it, oh, like 5-6 times already. 

Without giving the plotlines away, if you haven’t seen either movie… I was amazed at how much Into Darkness paid homage to Wrath of Khan!  If you like either movie and haven’t seen the other, I recommend seeing them together some time.  Wrath of Khan first. 

I took Friday (2/21) off work and got a haircut.  My last haircut was in October, so it was about time.  My hair was getting a little too long to manage.  Here I am, in the midst of styling.

This is my hair now.

The left pic is my normal smile.  I still don’t really like my smile with braces.  So I tried smiling with my mouth closed and the end result was an accidental duck face.  Sigh.  Here’s the back of my hair now.

After my haircut, I bought some hand soup and hand cream at Bath & Body Works.  Then I headed to Barnes & Noble.  I guess I felt like it was a splurge day, because somehow I ended up with a caramel flan frappe and a red velvet cupcake!  I enjoyed them while perusing magazines.

I did end up buying this calligraphy book and started reading it this weekend.  This book has been on my wishlist for months now, ever since I took the calligraphy class.  I’ve also taken this Skillshare calligraphy class and highly recommend it. 

I’m in the midst of training for a 15K race at the end of March.  And after the extra calories on Friday, it was a good reason to get out to the lake and run six miles. 

The six miles this week actually felt great compared to the five miles last week!  The temperature wasn’t as high, I wore shorts, and I was armed with water, Cytomax, and a GU.  I ate the GU after three miles and it helped power me through the last half of the run.  I felt really good on this run.  I felt like I could have gone further!  The weather was overcast yesterday too, that might have helped.

Ah yes, some Noodle cuteness.  One morning last week I came downstairs and it was quiet.  I love quiet mornings with a cute cat snoozing on his perch!

Noodle hid under the dining table on a chair and played peek-a-boo with us.

It was a little too much cuteness for one cat, really.

Oh I almost forgot!  We cooked this Pesto Alla Trapanese as a homecooked splurge meal this week and it was SO.GOOD.  We had forgotten how good it was! 

In fact, I blogged about this dish once before, and I was actually a Blogger Spotlight on America’s Test Kitchen blog!  One of my proudest blogging moments ever. 

PS – I finally switched out my blog header banner, after over two years.  Click over to check it out if you are reading my blog in a reader.  :)

Read More »

2014 Project Life | February Part 1

Today was Workspace Wednesday in the blogosphere and social media, so I posted this photo of my craft table.  Working on Project Life make my table a mess, but it’s a good mess!  :) 

As usual, my process involved planning out my pages in Lightroom before taking them into Photoshop for some journaling and then printing the photos out at home.

For my photos for the first half of February, I need to fill out the back half of a Design D page protector.  Then I went with the front & back of a Design A.  After that I wanted to use a Design F page protector because I love all the 3x4 slots in it.  This year I wanted to diversify the page protectors I use so that I use up all the different ones that I have already.  With all my photos, it ended up being about 5 pages.  I did end up switching a couple of photos due to orientation, but overall I love planning out my pages in Lightroom because it allows me to see which photos I want to print at 4x6 and which ones I want to print smaller.  You can see my post & video about planning out Project Life pages in Lightroom here. 

One thing I wanted to try to do this year was not have too many contrasting colors on a page, all filled up.  Colors are great, I love colors!  But too many bright ones together is glaring.  Having said that, sometimes I can’t help it, ha ha.  But overall I’m trying to give it a little more white space to “breathe”.

I got 3.5 pages done this weekend.  The first page was finishing the bottom part of my last page from January.

January page 6 – the upper half was from Chinese New Year at the end of January.  The bottom half is from the first Saturday in February when we went to the Little Italy Mercado and had lunch at Mama’s Lebanese Bakery. 

Supplies:  Project Life Jade Edition, Martha Stewart label stickers, Kelly Purkey geotag stamp, Studio Calico 3x4 grid card, Elise Cripe You Are Here stamp, AC Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go roller date stamp, One Little Bird "Stuck On You" digital kit, Studio Calico Marks & Co PL kit, arrow paper clip, heart sequins.

 

February page 1:  Noodle and Todd watching the Super Bowl; I got some art & calligraphy supplies from Blick Art, and celebrating Todd’s birthday.

Supplies:  AC Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party Magical Moments paper, AC Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party diecuts, sequins, AC Scene Thickers in silver, Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party Project Life mini kit, AC Dear Lizzy date stamp (light mint one from Studio Calico), Kelly Purkey geotag stamp, Freckled Fawn enamel dots.

Closer looks.  I created a title using a piece of 4x6 paper, some diecuts, Thickers, and sequins.  On the right photo that you can only see partially, I created the vellum banner on top of the photo in Photoshop and typed journaling on top of it before printing the photo out.

 

February page 2:  this page was all about Padres Fanfest and the cat circus.

Supplies:  BH PL 4x6 blank cards, white star on red washi tape, One Little Bird "Stuck On You" digital kit, Project Life Midnight Edition, October Afternoon Catch Phrase Everyday roller stamp, Studio Calico plastic stars, AC Project Life letter stickers.

Closer looks.  For this pocket, since it was Design A, it was 2 3x4 pockets in the middle.  I didn’t want to chop up my photo and journaling, so I just adhered my 4x6 on top of the two 3x4 slots.  I’m okay with not having it in a pocket.  But I’ve already touched it quite a bit and got some fingerprints on the photo, lol.

 

February page 3:  our first Dinner + Movie at our house with Anne & Gilbert; Noodle being a ham, lots of Valentine’s related photos (thus all the pink & red), and running 5 miles at the lake.

Supplies:  AC Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party Magical Moments paper, Lily Bee Persnickety ABC Stickers, BH date stamp, Freckled Fawn enamel dots, BH 3x4 cardstock by Bazzill, Amy Tangerine embroidery stitching kit, One Little Bird "Stuck On You" digital journal cards, Studio Calico Marks & Co PL kit, Tree House Studio sequins, Elle's Studio February 2014 kit, Elle's Studio Penelope Tabs, AC Valentine's roller date stamp.

Closer looks.  The white card on the left is just a blank white 3x4 card that I embroidered the speech bubble with pink thread.  The “Stuck On You” journal card is from One Little Bird.  By the way, I print my digital stuff out using Canon Matte Photo Paper and my Canon Pixma MG5320 printer.  It looks really good!  :)

Noodle being a total ham when I came home one day last week.

I love using the different pocket styles.  It also makes me feel good that I’m using stuff I already have.  :)

Other Project Life Supplies That I Always Use:

• Adobe Lightroom
• We R Memory Keepers 12x12 faux leather album
• Project Life page protectors
• Sharpie pens
• Date stamps
• Scotch ATG
• Glue dots
• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
• Cutterbee scissors

Read More »

Dinner + Movie and Other Fun Things

At the beginning of this year, I told Todd that I wanted to have friends come over for dinner regularly.  It is something we didn’t do as much last year that I missed.  We decided to call it “Dinner + a Movie”, because… well because that’s what it is!  About once a month we will invite one friend or a couple over to have dinner together and watch a movie.  This month, Anne & Gilbert were our first “Dinner + a Movie” guests on Monday, 2/10.

Todd cooked Fish Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce, and it was fantastic!  This is one of our favorite meals lately.

Mmm… tilapia.

Anne & Gilbert brought over a fruit mousse cake that was divine.

We may or may not have had more than one piece.  I’m not saying.

The movie choice for the night was “Oz The Great and Powerful”.

It had a slow start but picked up and the ending was pretty good.  Always love a weird movie with James Franco in it, lol.  We’re so excited to kick off “Dinner + a Movie” with friends.  Anne & Gilbert were great company.

In other news…

My February Ipsy Glam Bag came last week.

So far I’m not as sure I like this bag.  The lip gloss was too bright for me and smelled weird.  The lavender cream eye shadow is not really my color.  I haven’t tried the skin masks & fake eyelashes yet.  I love the light pink Zoya nail polish. 

One night when I came home from work, Noodle was such a ham that I had to take a bunch of photos of him.  It was too much cuteness for one cat, ha ha!

On Monday 2/10, I had the pleasure of meeting up for a late lunch with my good friend Meera.  A much needed girl-time indeed!  So fun to hang out, just the two of us.

Some stuff we’ve been cooking.  (And when I say “we”, I really mean Todd.  He’s the great chef of our family.)

This Coconut Curry Chicken Soup was so delicious.  8 WW points.

Love this Broiled Salmon with Roasted Tomato Sauce.

I took Friday 2/14 off work and spent most of the day remembering my mom and re-organizing my craft studio.  Lots of in-progress photos but no “after” photos yet.

On Friday evening, I had to drop my car off to the shop because I kept smelling a burnt oil smell.  It turned out I needed about $800 of work done and they kept my car until Monday evening.  I had to work from home yesterday.  But I digress.  The car repair shop was only a couple of blocks away from our favorite Indian food, so we got takeout from Punjabi Tandoor for our Valentine’s dinner at home.  Todd surprised me with a lemon cream bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. 

And Noodle and I both made handmade cards for Todd.  I helped Noodle with some tools which required usage of opposable thumbs.  It was a really nice & quite Valentine’s at home.

I ran five miles at the lake on Saturday.  It was a hot day and even at 9am it was 80 degrees. 

The last two miles were tough due to the heat, but I made it.  I’m sort of still on schedule in my training for the Hot Chocolate 15K at the end of March.

After going home and cleaning up, we went to Miguel’s Cocina for lunch.  Because I burned over 500 calories running and had a craving for enchiladas.

My lunch companion is the cutest!

I finished more Project Life pages for February.  Still need to photograph them, but that post should be up later this week.

Also, I just want to thank each and every one of you who take the time and effort to comment on my blog.  I’m thankful for you.  It makes the effort of blogging slightly more worth it.  THANK YOU!

Read More »