Notes from ShellyCentral

thanks mother nature

i'm going to see the hunger games today.
i know!

i'm still unsure. i love those books so much. i know the movie made a lot of money over the weekend, but i haven't heard anyone say how good they are or what they thought. the way the movie Looks is so different than how it looked in my head. even the few clips i've accidentally seen have sort of taped over they way i saw it in my head. i can't even remember how i imagined katniss looked. i'm afraid my favorite images from the book (like gale and katniss sitting on the hill outside the fence) are going to be gone forever after i see the movie.

but i'm going to see it anyway. how can i not? and i'm going to take hannah even though she hasn't read any of the books. i was going to make her until she pointed out her images have already been formed by the movie, whether she sees it or not, because of all the bits we've seen. so we're both going.

we're going today to make up for the sad fact we're not seeing my sister and new baby. they had planned to come to kc to see a doctor today, but that fell through and i didn't find out till yesterday, so we are bummed. have i mentioned how i hate living so far away from the baby girls? i do. i won't see any of them again until easter weekend. too far away!

---

sometime last week, d, h and i sat down in danny's study together. it was time to renew our groovegarden.com url and it seemed like a good time for each of us to get the url's we've been wanting. danny and hannah both had to settle for an extension they didn't love, but lucky for me, shellycentral was still available as a .com. !! lucky me. so it'll still be a while before danny gets our new server set up and ready to host a website, but it's a step closer and that makes me happy.

i was thinking last night about justin hall, and his links.net from oh so long ago. i thought about the early days of the internet of having a web site and how i loved it. i'd like to write more about that time someday. thinking of it made me want a web site to post all my things again. you know, i should go ahead and start making it now so that when danny finally does get it going, i'm all ready to post it. or upload it. or whichever verb you like. that would be wise and ambitious. we'll see what happens.

---

you may have noticed - you probably didn't, but you may have noticed that yesterday was project life tuesday and i didn't post anything. if you're really on the ball and/or really into project life, you may have noticed i didn't post anything the tuesday before that either. i don't even know what to say. the pl binder is sitting on the art table with  spring break week half laid out all over it. last week's photos haven't even been chosen or printed. i'm just not feeling it. i'm sure i will though, soon, and i'll be all caught up.

---

sometime, too, i'd like to write some more bits about being bipolar. how even when it's not like the lady flight attendant who went all whack on her flight last week, it's still a part of life. i am definitely always trying to monitor "where i'm at" mood wise, and where i think i'm headed next, and how to not go there. i thought about it especially after reading this blog post from the super fun artist, samantha kira, but i want to write my own thoughts about it as well.

i'm going to go outside with daisy for a while now. i am still grateful and in love with the amazing weather. in. love. the rainy bits remind me and hannah of great britain and the sunny parts are just amazing. especially for march. thanks mother nature, i am off to enjoy your gift now!

Project Life: weeks 9 & 10

 

I missed posting last week because I didn't manage to get my photos printed on time, and I almost missed this week because I remembered to take pictures of my pages this morning, but then I forgot I had to actually post them. D'oh. They're not 100%, my pages. It's spring break, so I'll do little bits here and there. But they're close.

Here's last week.

week 9 : the spread

i still want to add some letters to the title card that spell out 'week 10' . and add the business card of our groomer. the big news this week is obviously my new mac!

there's a shot of the fruit & veg drawer in the fridge, a shot i remembered to take when i took hannah shopping, our favorite game to play when we're waiting somewhere and my new computer set up. in the middle i finally remembered to write down something funny hannah said! shots from hannah's first college party, and a card i got her to half fill out about it.

week 10 : the spread

i got new bangs! hannah getting ready for school. and the rest is all about the weekend with the babies.

this week i got to use a baseball card page protector. i love adding those. so many pictures! i tried to take a lot over the weekend. i didn't think i had but i did manage to come up with enough shots to fill it up. i hope to do that more often.

there's an empty spot where i'm going to print out some words talking about the omelet bags we whipped up for future mornings.

i also used a mac program called turbo collage to make some 4x6s to hold more than one shot. i had too many shots of each thing to choose just one so it was a great alternative. bad part is i set it up for 5x7 and then printed it out 4x6. learning curve. i'll get it right next time.

There's way too much glare on these photos, I know. I'm sorry. I took the album outside to shoot, thinking the natural light would be better. Not so much. I'll be more careful in the future.

If you'd like to know more about Project Life, here's a good place to start. If you'd like to see other posts I've made about Project Life, check them out here.

Project Life: Weeks 7 & 8

I didn't get last week done till this weekend because I was out of town with my family while my baby sister had a little baby of her own! I had a blast in my art room this weekend putting the two weeks together.

Whoops. I would like to say things about these shots, but my computer is so close to dead I can't even do that. Sad. Hopefully you can figure it out.

Don't forget you can see all my Project Life posts here, or check out a lot of other PLer's at Project Life Tuesday.

 

Project Life 2012: Week 6

 

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday! It's week 6 and I actually like this week's pages!

Here's the two page overview, along with my old table and some Valentine's Day candy.

The traditional picture of the dog, with a sticker from a sheet of dog stickers. There's a bit of journaling, part of the cover of the book I'm still reading, a card from my therapist and some pictures from around the house.

A close up of left page. There's a note with my doctor's card about meeting with my friend that day. It's on a journaling spot sticker.

The left side. A shot from my art journal, dinner, a shot of my Netflix discs, journaling about tv watching. After a lovely warm winter, this weekend it got way too cold so I shot a photo of the temperature sign at the bank down the street. Dig the Jayhawk out front. Hannah gave me one of her used up bus passes for the PL.

I printed out a photo of Downton Abbey (my current obsession), but I managed to cut the bottom off. As Hannah and I watched the Grammy's sunday night I snapped a shot of her next to the TV.

And that's week 6. Not too bad. Now if I can just start getting these posts made during the daylight hours it would be way better. We'll see.

After I finished the week I did this:

At the beginning of the year, I sorted out all the journaling cards and added them into all the spots for each week. I thought it would make things easier. But really it's just been annoying. I like to use those slots for other things and I end up changing the cards I do keep. So tonight I pulled them all out, stacked them all back up and put them in the PL core kit box to use on a more individual basis.

I'm hoping next week will be even better! And I'll have to get it done on Monday because Monday night I'm headed to Pittsburg, KS for the birth of my new baby niece on Tuesday! Welcome to other baby. The one thing I can't forget to take is my camera (and it's charging cable)!

Don't forget you can see all my Project Life posts here, or check out a lot of other PLer's at Project Life Tuesday.

 

Project Life 2012: Week 5

Week 5. The weekdays were pretty dull, but the weekend was full of visiting my family. There were 2 birthday's and a baby shower. I haven't done the journaling Yet, but I've planned a couple of long, fold in half journaling cards to keep track of the memories.

The week starts with what I intend to be the traditional dog shot of the week. There's the potato soup in a bowl I had Monday to make up for going to the dentist, and then shots of the weekend: me and my mom, the baby girl, my mom's tattoo and a living room full of family. I want to maybe add a kind of label to each of the 4x6 photos. I don't know if I will.

I am out of 6up photo pages! Oh no. I use them a lot and should have realized I needed more, but I didn't. Until then I selected and rounded the corner on the 6 photos I plan to use. My mom getting her tattoo, her birthday dinner, the baby girl and the pregnant one.

Pictures from the baby shower.

More shower pictures, and some family photos. I'd like to label these as well. Plus I think there are too many pictures of me and Lindsay. I might change one out for something else. Or maybe not.

Don't forget you can see all my Project Life posts here, or check out a lot of other PLer's at Project Life Tuesday.

 

Project Life 2012: Caught Up!

Wow. It's been a Project Life Tuesday for sure, all day long.
I was due for a self care day, and I decided indulging in creating (and catching up with) my Project Life pages would be just the thing. It just took a few hours and I was up to date with 2012!

When I posted about week one, the pages were still covered with post its. Now they're all filled in. Page one is mostly about how lovely the weather was. It also started what has become a habit of dog pictures to start each week.

Page 2 is all about the weekend, when I visited my boyfriend and his aunt's farm. Dig the Scottish Highland Cattle! Love them.

Week 2 was even less finished when I posted about it, here it is now.

There was big excitement as my mom came to visit. It's a rare treat and everyone loves it (including the dog)!

Week 3 was all about the girl starting college.

Of course we will want to remember how much the text books cost. We got off pretty easy, I think.

I had a fantastic night out with out of state friends and forgot my camera and my phone! I had to get creative for some doccumentation; I printed out their face book user pics and combined them in one slot while using a large journaling card to capture my memories of the evening.

Finally the current week. I know I'm all about making the PL simple, but this week I decided to add a little extra on some bits. I added some paper from a pet stack to the dog picture (and it made me crazy I taped it down a little crooked!). I cut out a heart for the everday life card, and pasted on some of the hair I trimmed off the picture to it's left.

This week had several events that led to an extra insert. I managed to forget my camera for 2 more events! I was failing at doccumenting life for real. I used some before and after pictures of me, and went back to the face book options for pictures of the other girls. Oh, and I guess I'm not 100% caught up, I forgot the journaling card I added to tell about my sister's baby shower!

The 4th page of week 4.

Whew.
When I finished with 2012, I pulled out 2011 and the Europe photos. That's a big job. Lots of pictures, lots of choices, lots of trimming. I'm hoping to post those pictures tomorrow.

Until then, see you back here for week 5 next week! Don't forget you can see all my Project Life posts here, or check out a lot of other PLer's at Project Life Tuesday.

 

Project Life 2012: Week 2

It's week 2 and I'm already behind!
I'd say how did this happen but I already know.
My mom came to visit. I went out of town overnight. And then the girl had her first day of college.
I will get caught up though. Super fast. Maybe even tomorrow.
To keep up with the posting though, I'm going to do what I've seen some ladies do and just share my photos from the week, and then later when I've caught myself up I will post that, too.

So for week 2 of 2012, my mom came to visit. It was a rare treat. Since I'm a weekly hilight kind of PL-er, half my photos are of that.

When my mom last lived in town, she was the caretaker at a camp. On Saturday we went to visit.

We had breakfast at IHoP before my mom headed home.

I took a few different photos first day of school style, but I think I'm going to use this one of waiting at the bus stop for the PL.

I hate that through the windshield haze, but I had to get her walking to her big girl bus.

 

And the texting as she headed off...

(whoops. I left her phone number clearly visible in that photo. I'll have to fix it and get it back up.)

I'm going to use this photo of the "after" the first day in one of the journaling pockets. I might use some of the scenery at the camp in those slots too, but first I have to decide how many journaling slots I'll use for actual journaling.

To see the completed layouts when I'm done, or see any of my other posts about Project Life, you can check right over here. Even though I'm a bit behind, I still LOVE Project Life, and it's the simplicity of the project that makes me so sure I'll be able to catch up!

Project Life 2012: Week 1

It's week 1 and I'm a little behind. Mostly because all my PL time has been used finishing up PL 2011. But that's ok. I'm not going to harsh myself about it. It's Tuesday and all the "hard parts", if you can call them that, are done. Here's how week 1 looks tonight:

I am definitely of the weekly higlights school of Project Life. I really can't get it together to take a photo of each day's hilight, but I do take lots of photos throughout the week (usually). So when I sit down to send the photos to Target, I just pick my favorite photos of the week.

The weather was amazing in North Eastern Kansas this first week. The best day of the week was in the upper 60s, so the dog and I sat outside most of the day. I read about half of Inkheart and took a little snooze in the sunshine.

That second journaling card is my favorite. I don't even want to put my handwriting on it, so I think I'll put it through my old time typewriter. I might add the Inkheart quote there if it's short enough, otherwise I'll just write the cards like the post-it's say.

I went to a farm over the weekend and the cow pictures kind of took over the second page of the spread. I remembered later I have a business card from the farm, so I'll put it in the forth slot and move those words to a tag on top of the 2nd 2x3 photo.

Sweet and simple. That's how I roll. Ok, I'm not really very sweet, but you know...

And here's how last year's PL is shaping up.

The tags are on pages that still need a thing or two to finish up. Last week there were about 3 times as many so I'm happy. The hard part now is the 4 weeks we were in Europe. I'm trying to just use the regular spread plus one of the 6 up pages (= 19 4x6 photos) for each week but we saw and did so much it's HARD. I plan to get it done this week anyway.

We'll see.
Check back next Tuesday for 2012 Week 2. Who knows what could happen!

Project Life the Easy Way

I am seeing talk all over the internets about Project Life. I'm also noticing people coming to my blog of all places to find out more about it. Hooray for that. And hooray for Project Life. It is a brilliant, genius idea and after finishing a year of it (ok I still have 6 weeks that are not entirely finished but I am closing in) I am so glad I did it.

I am noticing all kinds of beautiful, fully embellished Project Life pages. Complicated and prettied up and glorious to behold. That's fantastic. Those ladies have their act together and I can only wonder what it would be like to be like them.

But I am not.

Which is why I fell in love with Project Life in the first place! I mean that was the whole point of Project Life, wasn't it? Scrapbooking takes time and effort and organization and money and all kinds of things I don't have a lot of. But with PL it can be so, so simple. Print out 7 pictures, scribble some words on the pretty cards and there you go. Your entire week right there for you to always remember. It's like magic.

Of course I think those other ladie's PL books are amazing, and of course I wish mine looked like that. Don't get me wrong. There have been some weeks I've tried to dazzle it up. I've used stickers and tags and stuffing in ephemera from our lives. I've even used plenty of 2x3 photos in place of journaling cards (that's my favorite). But I am afraid people are getting lost in the dazzling.

I am afraid that people are giving up because their books don't look like what's her names and they don't have time to get fancy like that other lady. And I just want to say That Is Fine. Do Not Worry. My PL:2011 doesn't look Anything like that and I still love it with a crazy firey love. All those extras are beautiful, but even without them my PL book is full of all the amazing everyday things that happened to me and my tiny family for a whole year. It's the memories that make it magic, not the sparkles and pizazz. 

So please, even if you have tried scrapbooking and failed, or (like me) have never made a scrapbook in your life, don't think you can't keep up with Project Life. Or that it won't be worth it if all you do is slip cards and photos into pockets. You can, and it is so, so worth it.

Now I am too busy trying to catch up with all the things I've let slide the last few days so I could finish up my 2011 album and prepare my 2012 Clementine edition to really say this as well as I wish I could. But time is passing and every time I see someone has come here from a PL search I wish I could say this to them. So here I am posting this. Do it the easy way and don't worry. You'll be so glad you did.

The internet is dangerous.

I keep not writing anything, and that's not very good. I'm blaming it all on Pintrest.
I was so proud of myself for so long. I'd read people mention how addictive it is and how much time they wished they weren't spending on Pintrest and I'd think oh good. I'll never check that out and I'll save myself a lot of wasted time. But then I got an invite while I was weak, and bored, and thinking the internet wasn't really doing enough to entertain me. So I signed up.

Dangerous.

Want to see my boards? I know you do. You can here. But be careful and don't say you weren't warned. 

I've also been catching all up in my Project Life. I wasn't that far behind, but there are plenty of little spots here and there that were waiting for some help. I've been searching for interesting things to fill in empty spots and filling out a lot of jouraling cards that I either left blank or just scribbled a post it for.

I was in the middle of that when the UPS man stopped outside of our house. Everyone was excited. Daisy barked and barked and Hannah rushed down from upstairs to check it out. But she was soon disappointed. It was my new Project Life for 2012! Clementine edition! I wanted to open it right away but Hannah strongly suggested I put it under the tree. Alan called about then so I asked his opinion and he definitely thought it should go under the tree so I reluctantly let Hannah shove it under with the rest of the presents. Now I really can't wait till Christmas. You can still see it on the table here though.

Tomorrow we're making cookies. I have big hopes, but I'm not sure how many we'll actually get through. I'm taking the camera to the kitchen though so you'll see.

Daisy is really chasing something in her sleep. Go Daisy! I hope she gets it.