Project 365

So, I have posted a little about this a week ago, but I’ve decided to do Project 365 this year. I’ve known lots of people who have taken the challenge of taking at least one photograph a day and documenting it, and I thought I’d finally try it. I have this nice fancy camera, that I don’t really know how to use. What better way to get to know it than to use it daily! I have made a promise to myself though to keep this really simple. I figure that if I keep it simple then I won’t get overwhelmed and give up! So I am not really doctoring up my photos – I am using them pretty much as is. I am not going to post them on my blog daily or maybe even weekly. We’ll see how often I get to it. I am however trying to stay active in the Lilypad 365 Forum to keep me accountable! I’ve already posted my first weeks LO in the last post, so here is my week two that I just finished up. I think it will be really neat to put these together in a book at the end of the year – it’s kind of like a journal!

I have not posted recent LO’s in a while now, so here are a few pages I’ve finished up recently:

January is a very busy month for me, and I have not had a ton of time to scrap. Work has been busy with year end financial stuff to wrap up, and then I also have to report a bunch of Property tax stuff, so that is a fairly time consuming and tedious job. It’s fun to be busy at work though because it makes my day just fly by, and in this economy busy is good!

We don’t have a ton going on this weekend! We plan on hanging out at home and not spending money so we will see how that goes. Tonight is taco night, tomorrow is spaghetti! I am guessing we will go for lunch at least tomorrow afternoon – we usually eat out once a week somewhere kid friendly! Sunday after church we will celebrate Selah’s and my nephew Cobe’s birthday with Kyle’s family, and that’s always a good time! Selah turns 4 on Tuesday!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bippity Bloggity Hop

Welcome! If you are here for the Lilypad Blog Hop, you’ve found your way! Isn’t it so fun! I hopped thru it myself to collect all the quickpages! I LOVE quickpages! I just adore the Lilypad store colors, so this months BYOC did not disappoint! I made this page with it, and now you get to download this link and create a page all your own with it!

Download the quickpage here! I hope you like it!

Next up you will be heading over to Kate Hadfield’s blog for the quickpage!

I’ve also finished up my first week of Project 365! I am going to try to take at least one photograph a day, which some days shouldn’t be hard, but I am sure some days it will just not be an option. We’ll see how I do! I am thinking it will be neat to compile these LO’s and have them made into a bound book! I am also hoping that it stretches me a little bit photography wise, I’d love to be able to become more comfortable with my great camera and get great shots on purpose, not by just chance alone! I am going to try to stay active on the photography forums at TLP to keep me accountable!

Peace out everyone! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog hop! If you finish a page with my quickpage I’d love to see it, because I have it in my head that no one will use it! :)

Have you hopped over to The-Lilypad yet?! Lot's of fun stuff going on in the forums! Prizes to be won,games to be played, frogs to be kissed, etc... And the store is loaded with Lilypad goodness - the new BYOC!!!

Did you notice I finally got my blog changed up! My sister is the mack at working blogs - thanks a bunch!!! My girlfriends were all teasing me about my fall themed blog, so it was definitely time to change it up!

Not much going on this weekend. We have small group at our house tonight, Kyle works all day tomorrow, so hanging out with the girls again all day, and then pizza at friends at night. I am afraid the weekend is going to fly by this time.

See you tomorrow for the blog hop - you are not going to want to miss it!

MandaKay

All things Digi

A few of you that read my blog (and really I am sure there are only a few) have recently gotten into digital scrapbooking, so I thought I'd share a little list of some resources that I use in my process!

Extract Now - extracts a bunch of files at once! It's the bomb. It's free - just scroll down to

the bottom of the site and click download now - pretty easy!

Pioneer Woman's Photo Actions - they are perfect for me. They aren't too harsh usually, some of them just give a little boost, or a little light, or a little coolness or warmness to my pictures. I don't monkey too much with my pictures, but I do usually run a pioneer woman action on them! They are free, but I don't think they work in Photoshop elements - you may need to read up on that.

Kristen Rice's Shadows Perfected Styles - For $3.49 (and watch for AfterFiveDesign sales to get it even cheaper) this shadow style set is well worth it's money! I use these styles on almost every single LO! They are quick and easy and with a click of a style button you have great shadows, and if you want to tweak them a bit you can as well! These are compatible with CS versions and Elements! (here are two links to a few free ones, but I have not used them: by Flergs, and by Megan - and by the comments it looks like these were pretty combatible with most photoshop versions!)

TheDailyDigi - A GREAT all around knowledgable site for all things digi! Wealth of knowledge it will keep you busy for hours if you are just getting into digital scrapping! Some little freebies every once in a while too! They also off what's called The Digi Files - for $5 you get a whole slew of kits by different designers - I bought last months and it did NOT dissapoint - wow! I got a ton of stuff for $5 and got to play with some "new to me" designers stuff!

Scrapping Simply or ScrapbookPictures - Everyone always asks me where I print my LO's. Lately I have been using the first site - Scrapping Simply. They charge only .99 for 8x8 prints. They are full bleed which means there is no white around the edges - and they don't cut off much of your LO either, which is important. I usually try to leave anything of importance, like journaling, or a pic I don't want cut off, away from my edges a bit anyway, but nice to know they don't crop off a bunch to make it full bleed! They have a flat $5 rate for shipping. ScrapbookPictures also does a great job, but they are higher priced MOST of the time. They do run sales , but their 8x8's are regular priced at $1.49. So I have been sticking with Scrapping Simply!

DigiShopTalk (DST) & MyScrapbookArt (MSA): Forums, open galleries, challenges. I like to frequent these sites to find out what's going on in the digi world! Also I post all my LO's to these galleries because they are open galleries, meaning you can post your LO's that are done with any store's stuff!

Stores I love:

The-Lilypad (TLP): I am bias because I am on the creative team, but seriously we have some of the best designers around at TLP!

Shabby Miss Jenn Designs (SMJ): Again, I am bias, because I have been with SMJ with quite some time now, but very shabby chic awesomeness at her store!

After Five Designs (A5D)

Little Dreamer Designs (LDD)

Scrap Artist (SA)

Catscraps

SweetShoppeDesigns (SSD)

There are so many more stores and sites, and tools I am forgetting to mention, but I wanted to just get a little list together of my favorite tools and sites!

And now for a little announcement! Be sure to check in this weekend at The Pad!

See you all here on the blog for the blog hop this weekend!

MandaKay

Catching Up

This week between Christmas and New Year always seems like a week of catching up. Catching up on the normal everyday part of life. Last week was so busy, and some things kind of fall to the wayside in order to wrap, bake, prepare for parties, etc… It’s not only catch up at home, but also at work. It’s year end time and for someone who runs all the “books” at work – that means making sure everything is in order by year end! I am also trying to catch up on my scrapbooking. I have only done about 4 LO’s total in the month of December – which for me is not very many! And of course the photos keep piling up because I take my camera to all of the Christmas festivities! So lots of catching up.

The kids and hubby are home all week too, so trying to spend lots of time with them as well!!! Tomorrow we are going to hit the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie – I think the girls will love it, because they love the first one! I always love a good theater movie as well, since we maybe go to the theater about 3 times a year!

Here are a few of the LO’s I have not shared yet – a few of them from late in November.

OK – off to get ready for 2010 – crazy that we are like 4 days away from 2010. I remember like it was yesterday ringing in 2000 – The Millennium! Happy New Year if I don’t get a chance to pop in here before that!

MandaKay

It’s Christmas Eve Day

I am so excited for the next two days! Last night I was reading the girls “Twas The Night Before Christmas”, and they had so many fun questions. I don’t like to play up the Santa thing too much, and we are pretty honest about how we answer things, but it is so fun to see the amazement and the excitement in their eyes! We read just as much and talk more about Jesus’ birth and the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

The girls were in a Christmas pageant last Sunday and they did great! They were darling. Selah was my little outgoing singer! Braelyn was a little more shy and reserved, but she still sang her little heart out for Jesus. She has a more nervous sense about her. Gracyn wanted every bit to be a part of it too, so I kind of let her stand there with the girls for a bit. I figured it couldn’t hurt!

We’ve done so much since I last wrote that I can’t possibly include all the pictures or write about all the fun stuff we’ve done lately. I did post a Dec. album in facebook with some of the fun stuff!

Today I get to go with hubby to run some errands and have lunch – his mom just called to see if we wanted to go out without kids and we gladly accepted! Thanks Mom H! We just have a few things to pick up – placemats I made digitally for the girls at Staples, bank, and who knows what else. For sure lunch and I have been craving Red Robin so I think we’ll hit that!

Tonight is party at my mom’s house with my family. Tomorrow morning is breakfast at Kyle’s parents after we do our Christmas morning stuff here. Then later we usually hit a movie with Kyle’s parents while my parents have the girls for naps!!! I am such a blessed person!

Merry Christmas to you all – I hope you enjoy your families and remember the REAL reason for the season!

A week's gone by...

and it's December already. Guess I better work on getting my blog stuff changed, huh?! Pumpkins are only good thru thanksgiving I suppose. Oh well. I can't believe we've gotten away with such nice weather right up to December 3! Seems like we always have had a good snowfall around Thanksgiving or sometime in November! I know they say it's coming tonight or tomorrow, but I am thankful that it has held off until now! Maybe just maybe it will make this winter seem a little shorter! A girl can hope! Can you tell I despise snow?! Why do I live in Michigan, you might ask, well I LOVE our spring, summer, and fall - that is why!

It's been kind of a busy week - felt like I haven't been home hardly at all! Monday and Tuesday nights we went to parades - christmas parade and parade of lights! The kids enjoyed those for sure! Last night was church night, which was fun! My group of kids got to make their own snack - mini bagel pizzas, and then they had so much fun making a little present for their parents! It was so fun to watch them all work so hard on them and have fun crafting! Glitter glue was a hit with them! Tonight is a little more laid back with just a few haircuts at home, and tomorrow is low key as well! We have been having dinner though every night as a family around our table still, which is really important to me! Love, after a busy day, sitting down to a meal together and finding out what everyone did that day! This weekend is our last "non-crazy" weekend before all the holiday weekends begin, so I think we will try to enjoy it! Going out on Sat. night with some friends while the kids have a sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma's! Thanks you guys! I so love living close to our parents and family - I definitely don't take that for granted and I love the kids getting to have the same type of moments/memories that I had with my family and grandparents growing up!

I have really fallen off the dieting/ exercise bandwagon this last part of this year, and it is really catching up with me. Last year on Dec. 13 I had started working out really well - doing Jillian's 30 -Day Shred workout and mixing it with elliptical and stuff. I also ate pretty good - drank water, just was all around more concious about health. I somewhat did it in preparation for the trip we took in January, but I wanted to really keep up with it. I had chose a word for me for 2009 and it was MOVE. The word had two meaning for me - the first was to make a concious MOVE towards Christ, and the 2nd was to MOVE as in excersice. I did so well for a while. Then I slacked. I have been thinking about why I fell off the bandwagon. There are a few reasons, and a few of them I am not sure how to remedy. Although I will always have excuses I guess. One reason is that in late February I got a promotion at work which meant I was going to work one whole extra day more than I was previously. That is when a slight decline in working out happened. I was still trying to eat well though. Thru the summer though I still had 2 days home when I didn't have to run kids here and there to preschool and stuff, so in the summer I tried to workout at least on those two day during the week and then on weekends when I could! Well end of August came around and now on my two days off I am getting kids off to schools, gymnastics, etc.... I feel like there is really no time. By the end of the day I want to just sit on the couch, watch t.v., and scrap. Of course sometime in all that busyness I have to keep the house up as well and provide dinners. I guess that is pretty normals, eh?! Anyway, so there is my story about why I have fallen off the bandwagon. All excuses really, but in all honesty I worked out everyday of this long weekend we had because Ididn't have to rush off to work or anything, so I could just get up, workout, and then shower for the day after that. I would have to get up at 6:15am in order to workout before leaving the house during the week, and I am just not commited enough to do that - not that much of a morning person. 7:00 I can do, but 6:15 is too early for me. All in all I need to remedy this somehow because I have definitely gained weight in the last 6 months and it is frustrating me lately. OK - enough dieting stuff - it really is no fun to talk about, is it?!

No new LO's to share - the December BYOC (Build your Own Collab) is going live at the Lilypad tomorrow, so I have a LO from that, but will have to share it later! :)

Oh wait, I lie - I found a few I haven't posted here yet! Lucky you! Hehehehehe!

Here is the advent calendar I made that we are doing with the girls:

One with the collab of Kate Hadfield and Shabby Miss Jenn:

And then one I did the December Journaling Challenge at The-Lilypad:

If you are ever needing inspiration on what to scrap or are just not sure what you want to scrap you should check out the challenges at The-Lilypad forums - they are great! I tend to get my LO scrapped much quicker when I have a springboard to start from!

OK - have a great rest of your week and weekend everyone!

Thanks for listening to me blab my mouth again!

Signing out,

MandaKay