{crazyjen}

My Cousin the Cheerleader!

I went to watch my cousin Tara compete in a cheerleading competition last weekend at the Mall of America. I was skeptical...would it just be a mall full of catty snotty punk-a$$ little teenage girls? Wait...that's the normal, isn't it? or would it be fierce competitive girls? I wasn't sure. I'd seen it on tv before and some of the stunts they do are pretty intense...

Let me tell you, seeing it in person is insane. I can't believe what some of those girls can do. It's insane! I have a new respect for them...well for their athletic abilities not their twitty attitudes. LOL

Here are some pictures of my beautiful cousin.

She's from Ellendale, MN so she cheers for the NRHEG (New Richland, Heartland, Ellendale, Geneva Panthers)

She looks so happy. I was so proud of her for being brave enough to go out in front of everyone. This is her first year of cheering too!

She flies through the air with the greatest of ease. :)

She's on the bottom right of the group holding up the girl.

Project Life 2012: Week 3

It's week three and I'm still keeping up with Project Life. I am really truly enjoying it too. It feels good to get some of the pictures I take into an album and journaled right away instead of having them sit in my harddrive collecting harddrive dust or mites or whatever. LOL

I will say that I am having trouble keeping it simple as you will see below. I get these good ideas or see something that inspires me and I can't help but want to re-create or put my own spin on the design/idea. So I will have to try and be a little more simple next week if only to keep the amount time I spend on this to a minimum...which is the point. Get pictures in a book, journal and be done. :)

Besides doing weekly posts I will also be keeping the Project in an online album so you can browse through the whole album at any time. Project Life 2012

Here goes.

Week 3: There are two regular 12x12 pages plus a smaller insert that is made up of a cut up 12x12 page protector. (I'll explain more when I get to that page.)

Here I have turned the insert page and you can see the backside of the insert and page 2 of Week 3.

Page 1:

On the top left I put the actual dates and the week number. I am going to keep doing that just to have a bit of consistency throughout the album.

I consciously put the food pics in the middle and on the bottom row I separated the movie pics (Underworld:Awakening and Contraband) with the movie theatre receipt.

I love this picture of my Auntie Sheila in her bear hat. It's cute.

Korben and Jacob in baby jail. LOL Couldn't resist putting this one in. Kim, Thomas, Jamie and I are playing cards in the kitchen while Mom, Auntie Sheila and Chris are watching the babies. Turns out the babies were watching and distracting us.

Used a couple pictures from my phone. The white journaling on the oranges is simply a scrapbooking friendly paint pen. The bumps on a log is a picture from my phone using the Poladroid app.

A quote I saw on Karen Russell's blog. It resonated with me so I thought I'd put that down.

The movie receipt with a bit of embellishment. For each of the movies I copy a movie poster online and then resize it in PSE (Photoshop) and then print it on a 4x6 piece of photo paper and cut it down to the pocket size (4x4). I liked it to be a little smaller to allow for some journaling. I also included the ticket stub and attached with a mini staple (Tim Holtz).

This is the start of the Insert. I printed off a 3 1/2 x 11 picture (left) and 3 - 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 pictures (right). I slipped the larger set of three pictures into a 12x12 page protector. Then I sewed right along the right edge of the picture. Then cut off the remaining unused portion of page protector. Then I took an 8 1/2 x 11 page protector that I had cut up and sewed that along the right edge of the previously sewed piece. I slipped in each picture on the right-hand side.

Here's a better picture of the top left-hand side. I added a mall piece of cardstock on the top just to fill the space.

One of my favorite pictures from the day. It was a Cheerleading competition at the Mall of America.

Note: You can see on the left-hand side the 2 rows of stitching.

This is the backside of the insert. I made the journaling on the right after seeing this on Pinterest. I just knew I had to copy it. So I went into Microsoft Word and re-created it using my own fonts and my own journaling. It was sweet!. It took awhile but it was fun and a different way to journal.

Inserted the score card from the night.

The journaling card I made to look like a playing card.

Page 2 of Week 3:

I'm loving the white bordered edges of pictures. I tihnk I might continue that. It seems to make the picture more prominent and look nicer.

I took a picture (left) of my lunch at Noodles & Co. then added the description of my food from the take out menu that I got from them. I thought that was a clever way to record that information.

p.s. I keep a small envelope in my purse now to keep things for this album. I have put menu's, business cards, wrappers, ticket stubs, receipts, etc. in there. Some things I use and some I don't.

I wanted to put a couple pictures of my nephews in this week so instead of having to choose between several I picked my two favorite and then cropped them to 2x3 (which means I didn't lose any of the original image) and put both of them on a blank 4x6 canvas in Photoshop then addded some text (their name).

just a lovely picture with the date on top and some word stickers (using Authentique Journey Collection)

Picture of my pinochle hand with a title (used text in Photoshop)

That's it. If you want any more detail on how I did things or the products used send me an email or list a comment and I will reply.

 

The drifting snow outside my

The drifting snow outside my house

Look who i have today!

Look who i have today! My nephew korby

Look what I've got today.

Look what I've got today. Eagles pancakes!

Project Life 2012

I decided to try Project Life by Becky Higgins. I got the idea more from Ali Edwards though. She did it last year and is doing it this year too. 

Basically you do a two-page spread about each week. Initially I thought it would be a lot of work and just too much to add to my already huge pile of projects, ideas and STUFF that I have on my plate. I mean really? You have to do a 2-page spread every week! But if you look at the set-up of the pages it's not so bad. It's less like a traditional 2-page spread and more like a mini book. Just grab some 4x6 or 2x3 images and grab a couple journalling blocks and you're done. No need for excessive embellishment.

So, at the last minute, I decided to give it a try. I already do the December Daily and that's a layout every day during December. Surely I can do this? Plus I'll actually be getting something done. Getting a handful of pictures and a notecards worth of journalling down. I need to document this stuff because I'm getting more behind even as I type this. That's what really sold me. Getting something down every week. :)

I bought a 
12x12 leather binder from Archiver's in red because I couldn't get the Becky Higgens package. She has a whole package you can buy with the binder, page protectors, journalling cards, date cards, etc. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to use  my own stuff (to save money). Although her stuff is already set up for you, so it would be a tad bit easier but...I bought my own.

These pages protectors (not all the same because I wanted some variety): 4x6 and 4x4

9 4x4's

One 6 x 12 Eight 3 x 3 Inch

Four 6 x 6

After I had the products I had to decide on a first page. Some kind of cover page that would be cool, would set the tone for how my album was going to be, something that would say "Turn the page and look through this gigantic book it'll be interesting and fun and loaded with awesome pics!" LOL

Well at that point I stalled out. Yep. So instead of sitting around looking through all my stuff I went to the internet and started looking at other people who had done Project Life. I started with Ali, then went to Becky's blog and found a whole host of ideas which led me to other blogs, to a Studio Calico discussion post which led me to several pinterest sites with ideas.

So happily I perused the internet pinnning ideas as I went. In case you are wondering what I found here's a link to my Project Life Pins.

Then I sat down and just did it. Just did my cover and the first two weeks. It was fun. I loved it. I didn't overthink. I just grabbed my favorite pictures, some ephemera I collected and got down to business. Here are the results:

(if you click on the images you can enlarge them)

My Cover

I used some pictures of my from the last month. I was going to take some special ones but I figured I might as well use what I have.

This is the 4x4 9 picture template. I cut out some 4x4 squares from some scrap paper and used 3x3 pictures.

I love this center square. I used a combination of thickers foam letters 2 and 0 and used some american crafts letter stickers for the 1 and 2. I used some Karen Russell phrase stickers (very old) and stitched on the heart with red floss. (I drew it on with a pencil and just went over the drawing with the floss). Then I just drew a thin line around the box to emphasize it. Simple. Easy. Not too much digging for supplies involved (in reality that can be the biggest time drain).

I wanted to do something with numbers, so I used the numbered cut-out and glued that on a white 4x4 piece of cardstock then cut out the 5 and 2 from a piece of travel paper and added weeks with some small letter stickers.

This one just shows what I'm documenting. My Life (rub-ons). I used a Martha Stewart butterfly with some stitched on red/white striped floss. (I think Doodlebug).

I did a little stitching around the picture of me sewing because...well, I just thought it would be cool and ironic. LOL

and obviously I'm a dork. LOL

I stitched red on the corners on this one because I had some leftover red floss from the heart on the 2012 and I thought it was a close up of me and Jacob so it made it feel even closer and more cuddly. I didn't mean to include someone else on the cover besides me but I liked this picture a lot.

Here's Week 1: 1/1/12 - 1/7/12

See, it's nothing special. Just a bunch of pictures and a handful of journaling. Just enough to get something down.

I am going to always, well, probably mostly always put the week date on the top left corner of the layout just so that there is some consistency.

Page 1 using the 9 4x4 page protector. I like this one because you can get a lot of images on here.

I didn't do the pictures in any particular order except the food. Figured I'd keep that all in one line.

Piece of red paper, a white tag with red heart, glittery 1 number sticker from Making Memories, thin strip of white cardstock with date stamped using red Tim Holtz ink.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy LOL

I love this picture! I put the address on the bottom. I used remington noiseless font and printed it on a piece of white cardstock then cut that out and glued it on.

Here it is again. I messed around with it in Photoshop. I love this picture. :) It's right downtown Minneapolis next to the McCormick and Schmick's

I typed up the menu of Jayde and I's dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. I just went to their website for the details.

Page 2 of Week 1

The We Bought a Zoo square I just copied an image from Google of the poster, resized it in Photoshop and printed it on cardstock. Then glued the ticket from the theatre on there. I think that is something I'm going to do continually this year just to document the movies I go to. I would like to add some journalling about the movies but only if I have room.

My journaling page. I used some notebook lined scrapbook paper and cut it up into 4x4 squares. I just joted some notes down for each day as to what I did. I'm just recording the basics. If there is a bigger story I want to tell I will but I didn't have one for this week.

Note that on most of the pictures I wrote something about what the picture is or a short sentence or phrase about it. I think that will also be something I do weekly. Write on the picture itself, add a phrase or word sticker, create something in word and print it on cardstock or print the picture with words on it.

Week 2: 1/8/12 - 1/14/12

This week was an excercise in using all the cameras I own. I have pictures from my Canon DSLR, my Canon point and shoot and my camera on my Droid Bionic (used several different apps for the images)

Page 1 of Week 2

Jayde and I went to bingo with his mother and her and I won, hence the blank bingo card (one of my non-winners) with the amount in letter stickers of what I won.

I made this 4x6 page with 3 images, so there is a 2x4 and 2 2x3's of the pencil case that I sewed together and gave to Michelle. I made a tag (top left image) of my initials kind of like branding. LOL

A 4x6 with our names on top and some letter stickers on the bottom.

This next page is the 8 1/2 x 11 insert I added for this week because I had so many pictures that I wanted to include. I made this using the Pocketbooth app on my android. I took several pictures of my nephew that come out like photo booth pictures. I downloaded them to my computer and made a 8 1/2 x 11 blank canvas in photoshop and dropped the images on there. I centered them because I figured it was easier to center instead of having to cut them out and put them on a piece of cardstock. That would have been more work than necessary.

I punched out a heart then cut around it to get the frame then lightly glued it on and stitched crosses to hold it in place. Peanut Baby is two different kind of letter stickers. the baby has flocking (I believe Making Memories).

I have to say I love this page. I really do. I loved putting all of those pictures on there and highlighting my favorite and putting the nickname I have for my nephew.

Here's a close up. (p.s. I will be having pictures of my other nieces and nephews too it just so happened that Jacob came to visit on Wednesday)

This is the second page of the insert. I used the same heart punch and then added the descriptions of the people using the Remington noiseless font again on white cardstock.

Here's a close up.

Page 2 of Week 2:

My journalling. The pink cow on the right is something I got from the Burger I ordered from Burger Jones in Burnsville.

Another movie. I copied the poster from the website, resized it in PSE (Photoshop) and then printed it on a 4x6 piece of picture paper. I added the ticket stub and some words to describe it.

Two pictures I love. The one on the left is from my phone the BeFunky app which allows you to change to b&w and added the black border. The second is from my DSLR. I added the cute and fat because that's what I call him sometimes. LOL I figured it was good to get some of the phrases down that I call him.

Chicken Fettucine that made from PW. I turned the image from my phone into a polaroid hence the weird looking image but I didn't care. I liked playing around with the app, Poladroid.

Stuff from Auntie Sheila's house. I just had to include it. LOL

So that's about it. My cover and the first two weeks. Honestly, it took more time to take pictures of the pages, correct them some and download and write this post than it took to actually make the pages. :)

Here is the full album Project Life 2012

 

From the photobooth in my pocket

Playing with jacob

This photostrip was created on my Android device with Pocketbooth.

www.projectbox.com/pocketbooth

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Phone

Sheila's valentine tree Sent from

Sheila's valentine tree

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Phone

Found this cool Android app

Found this cool Android app called Pocketbooth it creates old fashioned photo strip pictures just like the old machines. It even has the time delay and you can change the picture to b&w, sepia or vintage. It's sweet.

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Playing pool at shooters with

Playing pool at shooters with jayde

Jacob was Over!

Da baby aka Mr. Cute and Fat (he's not really fat but he's a squishy little bundle of joy and he's cute hence Mr. Cute and Fat) came over to visit with his mother (little Kimmie). LOL

He was so happy and very good. We sat and watched Moneyball and he didn't cry once. He would talk some but that's about it.

He just sat up on the couch next to me and played and ate...and ate...and ate. LOL Kimmie's working on giving him more people food as opposed to milk and cereal so she's been giving him these little dissolvable cracker thingys (can't remember the name). He doesn't have any teeth so he gums them down which is a problem occassionally because he tries swallowing them before they are small enough and he starts to choke. It's a bit scary because he gets it done or coughs it up. After I kept feeding them to him he eventually stopped choking and got the hang of it.

 

This is Jacob getting a "diaper job". He loves it when we strip him down to his diaper. He just laughs and smiles.

This is Jacob eating part of my grapefruit. I thought I'd give him just a little and I mean a little. Like uber small just to see what he'd do. He didn't really cringe then he kept following my spoon around and open his mouth when I'd cut out a piece of grapefruit so I kept feeding him some.

This is after I decided to just give him some of the juice instead of the pulp. He made this face but kept eating it and wanted more. LOL

Playing pool

Played pool at shooter's in the cities on sat with jayde. My average is over 5 balls per game which is good considering i play an a/aa pool playet

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Phone

2011...a retrospect

I don't know about you but for me personally I spend too much time worrying about the things I didn't get done instead of looking at all the things I did get done. I can't just cherish what I have completed but obsess about what I didn't get done. So this post is all about what I DID DO not what I didn't do during 2011 (they are in no particular order).

• Make my first quilt for my nephew Jacob. For the pattern I used a blog post that I found on pinterest that showed a fun baby quilt made out of flannel and some very soft minky fabric. (Dec.)
• I became a member of Pinterest...one of the greatest inventions ever! I have found the coolest stuff ever and finally a localized place where I can save ideas I find. I used to tear out pages from magazines and print out stuff from the web and glue it down in a book. I no longer have to do this! ha ha(Oct.)
• I got back on my exercise regimen. It feels so good too! (Sept.)
• I handmade some coasters out of felt for my sister for her birthday and christmas. (Sept and Dec)
• I became the Co-Superintendent of the Draft Show at the SCFF. I was hesitant at first because it's a lot of work and I didn't know if I wanted to sacrifice that much of the fair and my vacation but in the end I decided that I don't do enough service/charity and this was something I could do. So I did it and it was better than I thought. It wasn't as hard and I was excited about it even if some situations made me nervous or uncomfortable.
• Tried a ton of new recipes including: Beer and Paprika Beef Stew, Bacon-wrapped weenies, Caramel and Sea Salt Topped Shortbread, Gingerbread, Cherry Limeade, Made my own Brine for the Turkey, Rolls, Frangipane Fruit Tart...there is probably more but I just can't think of it all.
•  Flew to Florida for my Aunt Kathy's big 6-0 birthday! Aunt Kay, Aunt Karen and Uncle Al came down too! Loved being able to see all of them! (Sept.)
• Flew to Chicago for a work training session and got to have dinner with a friend from college. That was so awesome! (Sept.)
• Was a Kickball Champion with Sweet's Towing in the competitive league in Owatonna. (thursday nights)
• Was a Co-Ed Softball Champion! (sorry, no picture but I'll get one!) In the #2 bracket in Owatonna with my family!
• Documented a Week in my Life
• Played in the Faribault Women's Softball Do-Over Tournament and almost won it! We played a lot of games that day all in the rain except one! We ran through puddles, were completely drenched and still had a really good day!
• Played competitive co-ed pool with Jayde.
• Learned how to use the mini skid-loader and plowed out our driveway several times with Dad.
• Threw 2 baby showers! Kimmie and Kelly
• Made homemade Easter Baskets for Jack, Grace, Jacob and Korby
• Went to Galena, IL for a girls weekend with some of college roommates
• Went to a Motley Crue/Poison Concert with Jayde
• Designed the Baseball-themed baby shower invite (looks like a baseball ticket) for my sister's baby shower. Had it printed at a local shop.
• Helped Jimmy photograph a friend's wedding.

 

One Little Word: Healthy

If any of you follow Ali Edwards' Blog you'll probably already know about this post. She does One Little Word every year and I have followed her for the past couple of years. It seems like an easy way to set one simple goal that can branch out and work it's way into several goals but without making the achievement of those goals impossible.

A couple years ago my word was Balance because I desperately needed to find it in my life. Balance in work, life, food, free time, family time, etc. Choosing that word helped me to focus and achieve that one goal. Granted I didn't succeed in everything but I did feel like I accomplished something and that was the whole point.

So with that being said my word for this year is Healthy. I'm willing to bet that the first thought that enters into most people's heads is weight loss. Healthy just being another word for weight loss. Sorry folks. Not today.

Healthy for me means feeling healthy not only in my mind, with my relationships with my fiance and my family and friends but also with myself. My mind needs to be healthy. My body needs to be healthier, my perspective on life needs to be healthier, my money management needs to be healthier and my goals need to be healthier. I could go on and on but I won't because sometimes simplicity just keeps things in perspective. I don't want to get lost in the details of my goals but just the goal. One thing at a time.

What's your goals for the year? :)

Jacob with his helmet (new

Jacob with his helmet (new winter hat)

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Christmas 2011

Here are a couple teaser pictures while I work on getting the rest up on the blog.

Me with my two newest nephews. Jacob and Korby.

Tristan in the Christmas Box. Saw this idea on Pinterest thoguht it was freakin' sweet.

Jack taking his turn in the box.

p.s. I didn't use a tri-pod so I couldn't get the nice glow of the Christmas tree. Sometimes it's just better to get the shot while you have the chance. The kids's attention spans are about as long as a sneeze.

Korby talking and showing us his chompers. He's got 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.

Jacob with a twinkle in his eye. :) One of my favs from the night.