Welcome to the Blog Hop! The hop starts today, Friday July 2nd through Sunday July 4th. Each blog will be showcasing a different project inspired by summer and all of its glory! Hop through each blog to check out the instructions for creating each project, then choose a project to recreate. Post your project in the AMM gallery and in this thread. You will have until Friday July 9th at midnight to post your project to be eligible to win an Echo Park Collection pack! More than one project created earns you another chance in the random drawing. Please be sure that projects are created especially for this contest. Good luck!
Since David is starting Kindergarten in the fall, I decided we would spend this summer at home together. I didn’t sign him up for summer school or for any specific activities. To make sure we wouldn’t get bored, I made a layout with a list of activities we can do. I used photos of each of the activities and also listed them. This way, if we want spontaneous ideas, we can close our eyes and point at one and do that one.
Here are a few details:
I wanted to show you how I did the photos for this layout so I took a little movie in Photoshop. I am pretty sure you can do the same thing in Photoshop Elements.
David:
1. Try one new food every day – Today’s food was persimmon. I obviously should have read about it before we tried it cause ours was still extremely astringent and our mouths puckered up immediately and we ended up trashing the rest of it. But he did try it and that’s a step. That’s all my goal is with this.
2. Do 30 minutes of work daily – Today we did math. We studied places, 1s, 10s and 100s. We also discussed what makes one number bigger than another and he took a mini quiz comparing numbers and got a 5 out 5 and a gold star. Good so far!
3. Read 20 minutes a day from a book – When I was little, I used to love and adore the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton so I decided they would be fun for David, too. For now that’s what we’re reading. Let’s see how it goes.
Art:
1. Draw 100 faces – Only one today, but better than none, right?
2. Make one art journal page daily – Went for something simple today. Just used some of the spare fabric I had. This awesome stamp by Margie and some stitching.
Health:
1. Exercise for 15-20 minutes 3 times a week – I did 21 minutes of Wii Fit today. It was painful, trust me. But I did it. Yoga, strength, hula hoop, and step.
2. Eat one fruit and one vegetable every day – Banana and Broccoli baby. I even ate some eggs.
Productivity:
1. Do one nagging task daily – I called the woman from transportation to David’s school, nagging indeed.
2. Start and End each day better – Right after I worked out, I flossed, brushed my teeth and showered. It did make me wake up quicker.
Soul:
1. Journal for 15 minutes a day – done. A bit odd and I am not sure if after all this blog writing I still have stuff to journal about but trying it on for now.
2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day – done. As I imagined it was harder than it seems.
3. Write a thank you email every day – Wrote one to my friend Lori today. She is awesome.
I’ve been loving having these focused projects that I’ve done for the last two months but it’s been a lot of work so I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to continue onward for July or to take a break.
And then I read The Happiness Project and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s so my kind of thing. At first I thought I’d do it in 2011. Then I thought that’s so far why wait? So I wrote down “theme areas” that I might want to tackle each month for the rest of this year. While that idea would normally be perfect for me, I just couldn’t get some of the projects I wanted to do out of my mind. I didn’t want to wait for the “right” month to do them.
So I decided to heck with that plan. I am going to do my own crazy version of this thing. I picked several areas of my life that I’d like to tackle. Most of my projects are about reducing where I am “feeling bad” somehow. Some are about “feeling good” and a few are feeling right. And almost all are all about the “atmosphere of growth” which is what I am all about.
So here are the areas I plan to tackle and exactly how:
David:
1. Try one new food every day – I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that David’s limited palette is my fault so I asked him if he would do this and he agreed to give it a try. We will try a range of things, sometimes veggies, or fruits or even crackers and bread, etc. This is not as much about eating more “good” food as it is about eating a wider variety and getting used to trying things without fear. The deal is he has to at least try a little bit and then how much more he eats is up to him.
2. Do 30 minutes of work daily – I want to spend more time doing math, reading, writing with David. Help him prepare for Kindergarten a bit. I do this but not most days and not as much as I’d like. And not focused. For July, I will do it when Nathaniel is sleeping so it’s just the two of us with no distractions.
3. Read 20 minutes a day from a book – David doesn’t always have patience for this but we will try. I like the idea of reading an ongoing book with him.
Art:
1. Draw 100 faces – I want to draw better. I figure practice will definitely not hurt. This particular task might extend to August, too. I’ll just make as much headway as I can and I will draw at least one face each day.
2. Make one art journal page daily – These will be small ones. On most days, I hope to just zentangle and maybe use my copics, some days I might do more but the goal is volume more than skill here, just to show myself it’s ok to have fun. I love Donna’s Inspiration Wednesdays so I will likely try some of that, too.
Health:
1. Exercise for 15-20 minutes 3 times a week – I don’t exercise at all. At all. So the goal for July is to take it super simple. To take walks or use the Wii Fit. The main goal is to establish a consistent habit of exercise, no matter how small. (I hope to move to 4 days before July is over but I will be happy with 3 a week.)
2. Eat one fruit and one vegetable every day – The fruit part is easy. I eat a lot of bananas, but I want to focus on eating more raw, good food. Ideally a bit more protein, too but the main goal for July is fruit and veggie.
Productivity:
1. Do one nagging task daily – If I can start the day eating that frog, it will make the rest of the day so much easier.
2. Start and End each day better – Working from home, especially in the summer, it’s easy to stay in my PJs all day. While that has its place, I think it will help me to get up, shower, and get dressed first thing. It will allow me to be more awake and readier to tackle my day.
Soul:
1. Journal for 15 minutes a day – I haven’t done this since Stephanie’s class and I miss it. I want it. I think it’s good for my soul.
2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day – I know it seems tiny but 5 minutes of sitting completely still is going to be hard for me.
3. Write a thank you email every day – I wrote about this already. This will definitely be good for my soul.
That’s it. This is actually a lot of stuff but I think it will make me happy. I plan to track all of these daily and report progress as always.
I’ll also add one caveat that we plan to go on vacation/out-of-town possibly in July. If we do, I give myself permission to skip those days. I might not, but it’s ok if I do.
Let’s see if I can do it. Like last two months, if I can’t it’s ok. The goal is to try.
When I originally made my list for June, I knew it was super-ambitious and I didn’t really think I would get all of it done. Throughout the month, I did change some things around but I’d say 85-90% of the final list is the same as the initial one. Here’s a small collage of some of the projects I completed in June. Many of them are not here and some are sneaks since they are not coming up until later but it’s still fun to see the variety.
And here’s a summary of what I did:
Scrapbooking:
30 total projects and the breakdown is:
12 Layouts
2 cards
2 projects for different assignments
12 creative therapy pages
Weekly Gratitude album cover
Finishing and putting together Nathaniel’s album
Sewing/handstitching:
10 total projects:
Book cover
Sew something for me (coming soon)
Art for Caleb
Art for Yona
Cross-stitch hearts
Counting bean bags
Fabric ball
Keychain
Camera Strap
Fabric basket
Knitting/crochet:
9 total projects:
Monster chunks
Doily
butterfly
heart
booties (or booty really)
fingerless gloves
crochet necklace 1
crochet necklace 2
Scalloped crocheted border on a card
Other:
Cheryl’s invitation
Start and Complete upcoming 6-week BPS workshop
Create a wreath
Paint a portrait
Create 13 Weekly Gratitude pieces
Make a flower ring
Write a love letter to my husband
Create a zentangle
Schedule a slew of posts for my blog
As of this writing, here are the “scheduled for June” items I didn’t complete:
Creative Therapy 126 – didn’t know what to do at first, now I have an idea but haven’t completed yet.
Write a Letter to Someone I admire – honestly, couldn’t think of someone, will likely do this one in July
Create digital downloads for June, July, August – I decided to take a break on downloads for a while
No so bad considering all the extra layouts and projects I did that weren’t on my list.
All in all, I’d say June was very productive. So far both May and June have been awesome, let’s see what I can do in July.
I first heard about Zentangles from Karen Walrond’s blog and then I searched for them on YouTube and found a bunch of videos. I’ll have to admit that while it looked really easy, I knew it wasn’t. Last year, when I did my 52 questions and techniques project doodling was one of the few techniques I didn’t even bother to tackle. I can’t doodle to save my life. Trust me, I can’t.
But I liked this so much, I did two of them.
So while it’s very flawed, I am pretty proud of my zentangle and I plan to tackle a bunch more in July.
I wanted to make this bag ever since I first saw it.
I don’t know why I never realized how small it is, but it’s tiny. It’s just a cute, little bag. I am in love with these polka-dot fabrics so of course I used those again:
It now stores my fabric scraps. Love love love this little bag.
A few years ago, I took a class on increasing your energy. It sounds sort of wishy washy but it was the furtherest thing from that. It was tangible and actionable and I left the class feeling energized and it has changed my life considerably. Even years later, I am still benefiting from it.
One of the things the presenter mentioned during class was that he writes thank you notes every single day. Sometimes several. And how this energizes him and makes him feel happier and better instantly. That’s the power of expressing gratitude. It pays back as much as it pays forward. Thanking someone often makes you realize all that you have. All that this person has done for you. Even the small things add up. And those are the most worthwhile because I bet no one else takes the time to thank that person for them.
That idea stuck with me all these years later after having read The Happiness Project recently, I decided I wanted to take this on for one of my July projects.
During the month of July, I plan to send a thank-you note to at least one person every single day. Actually I will send an email. Yes, it might be more impersonal but I use email all day long. I type fast and I am efficient with it. I also can express myself much more eloquently when I am typing. All these things mean that the letter will actually get written, be meaningful, and get sent (without my having to forage for stamps.). What matters most is that I write it and I send it.
Maybe I can convince you to join me. Spend the 31 days of July writing thank you letters. It will take about 15 minutes a day and I promise it will be worth every single second. And imagine the karma from sending all that goodwill out there…
The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
I wrote about Nathaniel’s album a long time ago, here. And now that he’s well past year one, I figured it was time to tackle this one:
53. Finish Nathaniel’s Baby album
The overall process I used for the album is this:
1. Some preliminary pages about expecting him and the test, etc.
2. Some pages about the day he’s born, his umbilical cord, etc.
3. At the beginning of every month, marking that month
4. From then on for every week, 6 photos and 1 layout to show photos for every day of that week.
5. At the end of every month, a page of notes about that month in his life (this needs more work for my book since i didn’t keep up with it well)
that’s it. So I planned to have photos for every day of his life and at least 52 layouts about his first year.
I ended up with 66 layouts since I did a bunch more as I felt like it. It got broken into 2 albums and honestly, It probably should be 3.
Here’s a look at one of the pages.
And here’s a small collage of all the layouts I did about the first year of his life. Most of them I’ve already posted. Some are coming up.
One more baby album down. I think I might go buy some more of the American Crafts Binder albums and break this one down to three albums.
Journaling Reads:
I take photos every single day. Some days I take hundreds and other days only a few. But I make a point to take them no matter what. I have photos for every single day of both my kids’ first years. I have photos for every day of 2008, 2009 and 2010 (so far). I love taking photos.
The best part of the photos is how much of our daily life it captures. The toys my kids play with. The clothes they wear. The expressions. The simple things that make our life what it is right now. I love being able to look back and see how our lives have changes. How my kids have grown. I love seeing all the things we did. All the places we visited. All the days we lived.
Some people say that when you take a photo, you’re missing living the moment itself. Not true for me. Capturing it makes me be in the moment so much more. It helps make it more vivid. It etches it into my memory permanently. For me, it’s like creating a visual diary.
Like most things, it takes practice to do it daily, but it so very worth it. These photos are my most cherished belongings.
