My December Memories Album

I absolutely treasure our December memory albums that we have. So do my kids. I keep them put away with all our Christmas story books and fill a big basket with them every December 1. We all love flipping through them. So, as I have realized, a December Daily album is not easy for me to keep up with, a simple December memories album is completely achievable. 

This year, I used the Ribbon Candy kit  and the Heidi Swapp File Kit to create the album. 

I simply selected a few of my favorite photos and memories from this month to highlight. For the cover, I used a printable from the children's Bible we read our Advent stories from, the Jesus Storybook Bible. 

Inside the first spread is a picture of my oldest after we got out from seeing "Frozen" at the beginning of this month. The picture reminded me of one of my favorite lines from the Christmas hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel." It's so beautiful and haunting and hopeful.

A little tip I read on faking a calligraphy style handwriting is to draw a second, thicker line on every "downstroke" your pen makes. I think it looks so pretty. 

In keeping with the Christmas carol them, I added two titles here that coordinate with the photos.

I have quite the little note writer in my family, so the perfect place to save them would be inside one of the folders! One of the notes is her Christmas wish list, so I put it along with our photo of St. Nick and one of the lines from "The Night Before Christmas." I have such sweet memories of my dad reading that to us every Christmas eve... and my dad totally embodied the spirit of St. Nick. I can't read it without thinking of him. 

Share with us in the comments a link to your Christmas albums! I'd love to see them!

Project Life- My Way

Who says you have to start Project Life in January, right?! Ha! I've been trying to wrap my brain around a way to make Project Life work for me for the last year and a half. I love the concept, but the actual chore of printing off that many pictures each week is where I always get frazzled and stop. 

So I've finally arrived at the conclusion that I simply cannot make it work that way. It's got to fit ME and how I work. So here is my album starting off! It probably won't look like most PL albums out there but that's ok. It's for me. :) 

I'm using a 6"x9" SN@P album. I love the size. It's small, but not too small. And they have a ton of different sizes of page protectors that will work for me. 

I made a simple intro page using the Beach Blvd. kit (still a couple available in the shop!)  and a pre-made base from Simple Stories. The background was pretty plain, and I wanted to add to it without making it super busy, so I just used the distress paint dauber from the kit to make polka dots. 

The first page is just a simple layout. I wanted to scrap this recent pic of the hubs and I on a regular 12x12 layout, but then I thought- why not do a small layout that can just fit in this album? It works perfectly for my new system and then everything will be in one place. 

I still can't get enough of the gold thickers from the Melrose kit. ;) They go perfectly with the Beach Blvd. kit! 

I know it's really simple, but I can't wait to show you guys more. I just printed off a bunch of beach pics to add in here later today and will share more with you guys next week. I'm loving this! 

My Teeny Tiny Album of Extraordinary Moments

When I first saw the straws in the NoelMignon Soda Shoppe kit (still available), I knew that they would be so fun to use as mini album binding! It binds together this little album of moments I want to treasure; little things that remind me of the good in everyday life.

To construct the book, I wanted to make a teeny tiny mini album out of the Soda Shoppe kit, so I started by making a few little booklets out of strips of 6"x3" patterned cardstocks, Glitz decorative tape, and the little "poloroid" paper by Dear Lizzy.

It's all ready to go and is not SO big that I feel like it will take me forever to fill it up. And then when it is, I'll just make a new one! :)

Countdown to Christmas- December Planner and My Version of a December Daily

Tomorrow is the 1st of December! Can you believe it?! Are you ready?

I'm not... but I'm trying to be better prepared. Today I want to show you one of my little tricks for (hopefully) keeping me better prepared and organized for Christmas this year. 

I bought a Pink Paislee Portfolio album from Noel a few months ago, and saved it for now. (She's out of stock on it right now, but she has several other albums that would work well!) 

I decorated the cover with the Glad Tidings kit (sold out except for the paper only pack- which is still pretty dang awesome.)

On the cover, I used one of the beautiful designs by Rhonna Farrer for My Mind's Eye. Because my album is smaller than 12x12, I cut part of the design off of the rest of the page and incorporated it into this part of the design because it was all so lovely! (You can see it in the little bird & "all is bright" tag below.) I love that this album has a protective sleeve around the outside.... normally I would take it off, but because I plan on carrying this album around with me, I'm keeping it on to help it be sturdier.

I used one of the inside photo sleeve inserts to make a quick little cover sheet. I may add to this... I don't feel like it's quite "done" yet. Or I may leave it. We'll see. I did put some sequins in one clear pocket and then tape it shut with decorative tape. I love that fun little element! 

Then- the insides! I made some printables to share with you today! I'm not a pro at this but I wanted something customized and couldn't find what I wanted. You could print these on whatever you wanted- I chose kraft cardstock and cut it down to size. 

The next set of pages are pocket pages- I cut paper the right width, but longer than the album, so I could fold up the excess and make pockets. Thank goodness for pretty double sided papers!

The page on the right is for me to jot down anything handmade that I would like to make for our own family traditions or decorations...

and the next page is for handmade gifts or wrapping items. 

The pocket pages will become useful when I stick in other notes, receipts, coupons, and odds & ends as we go through the month. 

I plan to use the rest of the album as a memory album- not exactly a December Daily, but something akin to it with a little less structure. I'm really excited to see how this evolves for me and I plan to share it with you!

If you're interested in using any of these printables, here they are linked below! 

Week By Week PDF: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoec2lBNHMtQl9lSFE

To Do List: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoeeVdLdkRZNndPLTg

Shopping List: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoeRGhHSTJUSkVzazQ

Handmade Gifts: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoebVJwTFUwS2F3Rm8

Handmade Decor: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoeSjJsMDFqM1lCTk0

Event Food Planner (with spot below to attach recipe card!): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByynLz6eGtoeMWlueXV6dERuTVU

Summer Journals

When I was a little girl, my grandpa, grandma, dad, mom, little brother, and I loaded up in a shiny white Cadillac and drove from Georgia to California. We saw the Grand Canyon, ate fancy jello with whipped cream on top in a restaurant with table cloths (the things that impress a 5 year old are fairly simple!), went inside of a giant teepee, stayed in quite a few hotels, and had all sorts of adventures.

I remember a lot of that trip, and part of it is because every night, my mom and I sat down and jotted down my impressions of the day in a little green journal with a shiny gold lock & key.

This summer, we may not being going on any major road trip adventures like that, but we are having *our* sort of adventures, every day.

I want my kids to remember them. I want to help them cultivate a sense of the small and the big, to soak in the details of the day, to push their sense of expressing their hearts, to spend some time in a little simple reflection at the end of the day. 

So we have summer journals this year. They are simple composition books with a little space for drawing and doodling. The two little girls have just drawing books as that's how they express themselves.

This isn't to be an academic duty as much as a heart and soul discipline, but it definitely helps keep up their writing and storytelling abilities as well. :) 

We don't do it every night. Some days I give them a specific question to answer. Other days I just tell them to write about their day or something they saw. Sometimes it's something we are thankful for. One morning I set up a sign and their journals with crayons with their breakfast and told them to write/draw about their dreams. 

I think this is something that we will treasure, and maybe not even if the actual journals themselves survive, the act of gathering together their thoughts and taking note of the day is a gift that will.

A scrappy challenge and note - book! :)

This month, the NoelMignon design team has been invited by the message board's own Michelle Rydell to partner up with Scrappin' the Music! Here are a few sneaks of my layout, using the Summer Wind kit (there's a couple left- hurry and grab them before they sell out!).... if you click HERE, you can see my full layout, along with the rest of the team's projects!

This month's prompts are really fun... you should totally join in! And the bonus is- if you do, you will be entered to win a $20 gift certificate from the shop! 

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My other little project I wanted to share today is another from the Summer Wind kit. A while back, Noel posted a great idea using the Fancy Pants Brag Book as a place to store all of the little "tokens of affection" she receives from her fellas. I fell in love with the idea at once and ordered a brag book... and then let it sit on my shelf until a week ago. Ha! 

I decorated it with the Summer Wind kit and a piece of My Mind's Eye chipboard from my stash. 

It is SUPER easy to just pop in a few notes, cards, photos, and other ephemera from my kids and hubs using some colorful washi tape. I love this easy process.... and then I can flip through, rather than looking through a box of these precious items! 

Dear Diary...

As soon as I could cobble a few letters together to make phonetically spelled words (I once wrote a note for a "pnut buddr" sandwich), I journaled. I have stacks of journals from my young girlhood.

Reading back through them, if I had lapsed for a time in writing, I would always feel the need to apologize to my diary. Or sometimes, in despair of being consistent and with a new resolve to write every day, I would just start a brand new journal.

I remember always writing with the feeling of someone reading over my shoulder... not feeling completely private. I often read books that were written as if it was someone's journal (one of my favorite types of vehicles for telling a story!), but I think that influenced me into thinking someone would some day read my ever so intimate thoughts about which boy I had a crush on.

Now here we go, I actually do have a place where someone reads my thoughts. I'm much more inhibited on what I share on here because I'm alwaysalwaysalways too self aware of that audience. I wish I could break through that barrier sometimes, but the judging voices in my head are way louder than the quiet voice of freedom.

Anyways, all that popped into my head as I went to click on the "Compose Post" button, because it seems as if the span of time gets longer and longer in between posts, and I feel this compulsion to apologize. It's silly.

:)

Since I apparently have spent my words for the evening with my blathering, I figured I'd post a few pics for you guys of a peek into our home right now.

Our suitcase full of Christmas books. Usually I do the whole wrap up the books and then unwrap one each night thing, but I didn't this year. It's okay. We probably don't need the mess and the fighting over it each night right now anyways.

In love with this EP and wish it were longer. 

I saw this fun idea on Pinterest and am so glad I did it.

Before:

I have a prettier cake stand that I'll be using here after Christmas time, but right now it's serving a decorative purpose on my mantle. :) Still, this small solution has made dish washing time just a little more pleasant, and we can all always use that! 

In preparation for my December Daily, I needed to reorganize my craft bag as well. I mean, wow. 

Before; 

After:

And here's my December Daily, just started! I'll share more as I fill up the insides. :) I used the Mistletoe and Holly kit from NoelMignon. You can see my video review of it here! 

We've been reading Christmas stories and our Jesse Tree devotional at night. My friend Carrie wrote her own Jesse Tree devotional for little kids, and it's really good. Perfect for the 1st grade and under crowd at our home! 

I let the kids go to town on our Christmas tree. It's quite overloaded with decorations. Just the way we like it. ;)