Hello Ladies

This is just a quick post - Those of you that were at the last YITL meeting know that I promised to add some info about formaldehyde on my blog. I want you to know I finally got that done and it is on my other blog Spillin the Beenz if you want to check it out.
I hope you are all having a good week
Till we meet again. . .
M

It's a good thing we postponed our meeting. . .

Last night I spent at Arrowhead Hospital!
This is me when I got home today. Yesterday I thought I was having a heart attack and Gary took me to the emergency room by our house. Two hours late I was in an abulance being transported to a hospital! After some tests and such they determined no heart attack. Not sure what it was so I will be going to a new dr next week.
I am so silly - I kept wishing I had my camera for my YITL album! When we were leaving Gary kept asking "do you want this for your album?" about every little paper, bandaid, or monitor sticker. We did grab the menu they give you to fill out. He took this picture and a couple others when we got home.
Still not feeling great but I am home.
See you all next Friday.

I am HOME!!!!

We had a WONDERFUL time while we were away - it was so much FUN to have a "Family Vacation" again! I will be sure to have several pages in my celebrations section for this trip!

Don't forget we will be meeting this Friday (the 5th) from 5:30 - 8pm. Please let me know by wednesday if you will be there so I bring enough pizza for everyone. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week! See you all on Friday!

Just Checking In. . .

Sorry I have been away for so long girls - you have NOT been forgotten, I promise! Each night I say to myself "before you go to bed tonight you need to update the YITL blog" and then it is 3am, 4am or later and the girls will be here in a couple of hours and I shut down and go to bed. I appologize! Some of you know that lately I have been struggling with my hormones and have just not been myself (there was actually a couple of weeks were I didn't think I could start or end a phrase without the "F-word") So lots of things have suffered from my lack of attention lately - you should see my floors! So anyways that is my story and I am sticking to it. . . .

Baseball Cards

As you all know we are having our next meeting on Friday, Aug 5th. I promised you all "baseball cards" of everyone in our group at that meeting. I have all of the photos done but I am waiting for the "stats" for some of you (Linda, Dawn, Sharon, Anita) . Please try to get this info to me in the next 10 days so that I can finish up the cards and keep my promise to you all.
Here is the info I need from you - please just send me an email with your info
*Name
*Birthday
*Why are you doing the YITL project?

Keeping Up

How many of you are totally up-to-date in your albums?????

I know I have fallen behind but I am trying to get everything all caught up. This is a photo I jus had printed for the Easter holiday layout. The main picture is 6x12 3/8" and the title below is 1x12 3/8". I had them printed on the same photo and just cut them apart. Those little skinny border pieces on some of our page protectors can be a little tricky to fill. So whenever possible I like just making a photo title to go in there. It is easy to do in Photoshop and I like easy!

I still need to finish my Father's Day page and finish up May and June - they are started, just not finished. My goal is to be TOTALLY caught up by our next meeting. This might be a little tricky since I am heading to San Diego tomorrow morning until Sat night and then I am leaving again for Disneyland on the 27th for the girls' birthday trip. And did I mention I am hosting teh Bday party here at the house for 40+ people 3 days before we leave???? That's right, I am a CRAZY person!!!!! Anyhoo - you all have a great week and I hope your 4th of July was FANTASTIC!!!! (crap - I forgot that holiday - I need to get abother page done!) See you all real soon - and don't forget to get your stats to me STAT!!!!!

P.S. I just wanted to tell you all that I failed my attempt at WITL twice!!!! Both times I tried, I was so hormonal that I ended up fighting with my beloved Gary (something we never do) and I just don't want that to be in the week I document. I want it to be a real look into my day to day life. So I will be trying it again - maybe next week.

Okay I am outta here - gotta go pack!

WITL - Day 2

Well Ladies here we are on Day 2 of my WITL. Man am I BORING!!!! When you have to document what you really do it is really eye opening!
Anyways - it was an uneventful day but I did manage to get some pictures - even a self portrait of myself in the mirror. I got some pictures of the girls and of dinner and some of the routine things we do around here. I think I have decided to do a little "film strip" set of pictures of the things that happen every day - dishes, dinner, diapers etc. No need to have pix of those on each day. I have not decided 100% on what my final layout is going to look like - but I have some ideas rolling around in my head. Anyways - just thought I'd check in with you all and let you know I am still plugging along here and haven't given up yet. I hope you all had a great day
Toodles

WITL Has Begun!!!!

That's right Ladies this is my "Week in the Life" week. It all started today - okay, yesterday, Sunday. I could not sleep to save my life on Saturday night so I decided not to make myself miserable and fight it. Instead I just found stuff to do. I visited with Lizzy out on the back patio (can you believe how beautiful the beginning to our summer is?) until she was ready to go to bed. That left me up and trying to fill time. I decided to get started on the banner for Monkey & Bug's birthday party. At 2am I realized I was going to get the full benefit of every hour in my week. At about 6:30 I decided I better try to get some sleep. That lasted until 9am and then I was up and going again (note it is almost 1am and I am still up!). Actually I was not moving too fast though I woke up with a nasty UTI and was feeling pretty bad. But I wanted to finish the banner and needed a few supplies, so Lizzy & I headed up to Mike's for some much needed glitter paper, xyron and gems. I was feeling so bad that I actually went to one of those Walgreens clinics while we were out. Two scripts later we were on our way back home . I started up on my banner again (I worked in my bedroom, in front of the tv for movies and close to the bathroom for . . . well you know). Lizzy, Gary, Darwin & Richard headed out for an afternoon of golf. Mom spent her day at church and with friends so I had the whole house to myself!

I need to get batteries in my little camera and put it in my purse for this week. While at the clinic I was wishing I had brought my camera and I tried to find some kind of cool memento to put in my album while I was there - I was at a loss - I almost asked for my dip test - but decided that was a little gross!!! So I guess I will just use the bag my script came in.

I have enlisted Lizzy's help in getting pictures of me this week doing what I do, wearing my lovely "uniform" (that is what I call the ugly clothes I wear around the house all week while watching the girls. I promised myself that I would not try to be something I am not this week or do things I don't normally do. I really want this to be an accurate depiction of what my life really looks like. So there will be some scary pictures of me with no make-up, hair pulled up on top of my head and some really UNfashionable clothing choices!

I guess Lizzy actually listened to me (this time) because as I sat on the floor in my bedroom, watching Sister Wives, finishing up the banner and eating a chicken Philly for dinner, she came running in with the camera catching me in all of my glory (aka mess).

So, that is the basics of day one of my 1st WITL - I am going to use all sorts of mediums for documenting my week - my calendar, a word document, my camera (of course) and my blog. By the time the week is over I will have all kinds of documentation to choose from when I start my pages.

Well I need to get myself to bed - the girls will be here in 5 hours and I need to clean up my mess and get some amount of rest before they get here. I hope you all have a SUPER FANTASTIC week

Toodles!!!!!!

Long Overdue Update!!!!!

Hello Ladies!!!!!!
Did you think I had totally forgotten our group and our wonderful project? Well I haven't - just been sooooo busy!
So here is what's going on. . .
Our next get together will be on Friday evening, Aug 5th from 5:30 - 8 pm. We will be having Pizza so please let me know if you will be attending so that I can be sure to buy enough. We will just split the cost between us all so bring a little cash with you that night.

The cost for this meeting will be $40.00 and includes all of the supplies in kit #2 - this is a good kit - you will like it! I have ordered some new papers from Teresa and you will be getting new protectors as well. I will also be giving you your trading cards on that day - see below for the questionnaire so that I can get the cards all done.

So that is all of the "business" stuff. Now lets just chat for a moment. . .
I am going to do my Week in the Life next week, starting on Sunday the 5th. I am excited to do this and have been gearing up for it. I made myself a week long calendar to keep on my desk for journaling - it might even make it's way into my album just as is. Have any of you done your "Week" yet? I'd love to know how it went for you. Anybody else have their week planned yet???

Remember that this quarter we are supposed to be working on these sections as well as our Week in the Life. . .
Section 4 – My Community
Section 1 – Home Sweet Home

I got to see Chris D's album this past Friday night - WOW!!!!! You should see it - I forgot my camera or else I would have taken pix to share with you all. She is ready for a new album already! Can you believe it? Great job Chris - I really loved it! Be sure you bring it on Aug 5th so everyone can see it!

Okay I think that is about it for now - so sorry to be so behind.

Trading Card Questionnaire -
*Name
*Birthday
*Why are you doing the YITL project ( keep it sorta short - working on a baseball card size)

Have a great week Ladies - see you all soon!
Marta

It's May now. . .

so I am busily trying to get my April & Easter pages together for my album. But I thought I'd share part of my April with you here. . .

We had Lady Bug Day here last week where I live and since I call London "Lady Bug" I of course had to take the girls. I wanted a whole page dedicated to this event so I did a 8x10 digital layout for this event. There were reporters there and I got interviewed (because London was all dressed up in her ladybug gear) and London & my Mom got their pictures in the newspaper. So on the other side of this photo I will add the newspaper article. You can see it HERE if you want.

You can click on the picture to see it bigger if you want

I hope you all had a great April and Easter and that you got some cool pictures and "stuff" to put in your albums! I have a few reminders for you here too -

1. Friday(6th) is the "Life" sign class - 5:30 - 8:30pm. So far I have these girls confirmed:

Linda
Sharon
Joanie
Anne B.

Dawn

I need to know by Tuesday (tomorrow) if you plan on being there!

2. Have you made a date on your calendar for your "Week in the Life" yet?

3. Last call for Teresa Collins brads - I am placing that order tomorrow. Email me if you want some.

I guess that's it for tonight - see ya Friday if you are coming!!!!

Toodles

So Inspired Tonight!!!

You gotta look at this video - it really inspired me! I love the way this gal added so many photos in her album. I think I am going to have to purchase some of these protectors for my album.

I hope you take a minute to watch this. It is just one more idea of ways to use your YITL album to it's fullest potential to tell YOUR story!

I hope you all had a great Easter - we sure did. But we celebrated on Sat and just did church on Sunday.

Have a great week talk to you all soon.

I got off track a little. . .

That's right - March was one of those months for me. I felt as though I was behind in everything I did in March. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried, how little I slept, how often I pawned the girls off I just couldn't catch up! I think a lot of it is because I had the month-long headache in Feb and that I never got caught up from then. Or maybe I have just lost my knack for prioritizing???? Either way - I feel like I am slowly catching up. This Sunday is our 2nd quarterly meeting at 1pm - I hope to see most of you there. this quarter we will be working on (catching up and) these 3 sections. . . *My Community *Home Sweet Home *and our first go at A Week in the Life I am getting kinda excited about doing the WITL section. Anyhoo - I know I have heard from several of you that say you are having trouble getting started and that you are behind on the 1st quarter's sections. Well don't worry about it, okay. I decided that when I first envisioned this project it was supposed to be fast and easy and not take up a ton of time. I really just wanted a record of my life and how we as a family spent our days. I have gotten a little caught up in needing it to be "perfect" and have tried too hard to do all of the "pretty stuff" which was not the goal of this particular project. So tonight I did the whole month of March in 22 mins! Well, sort of - I had to wait 1 hour for the prints to be printed at walgreens. It isn't fancy, but that's okay. It was important to me to get it done and to try to NOT be an over-achiever for once. I am not saying that there won't be "Fancy" things in my book - just not the month of March. So any ways I will have it with me on Sunday and I will explain what I did. See ya all then M See ya all then M

Just a Quickie Tonight. . .

It has been a L-O-N-G day for me!!! But I had these pix printed about 2 weeks ago to share with you all and I just have not had time to get them posted. Tonight I made sure I did it!

So - here's what I wanted to share with you all. The prints below are 4x6 collage prints that I made at Walgreens. All you have to do is upload your pictures and select collage, pick the photos you want in the collage (you can do a TON or just a few) and they will automatically build a collage for you. If you do not like the placement you can "shuffle" the images around until you get it just how you want it. They will even add a title for you (I wish I would have had one like that printed for you guys to see also). You can do them in either portrait or landscape, pick your border color & thickness, font, and font color. They come in 4x6, 5x7($1.99), 8x10($3.99) sizes. The 4x6 is only 29 cents!!!

This is one I did of my Bug - playing on her ladybug quilt I made her

And this is my Monkey playing in the bubbles at the sink after I did dishes.

I did these collages quickly with photos I already had on Walgreens so they are not anything great - but I wanted to show you this option.

Costco offers this service too, except the smallest size they do is an 8x10 - but they do offer an 8x12 which is a really FUN size! They also offer 2 lines instead of one for your title. Their 8x10 (and 8x12) price is only $1.49 and they go all the way up to a 20x30 for $8.99.

This is a really great way to add a lot of photos in a small space or tell a whole story with lots of images using only one print in your YITL albums. And you are not having to do any work at all! You can't beat the prices either!!!

Anyhoo - I hope this was a helpful idea for you all. Let me know if you end up giving this a try - I would love to see what you come up with!

Talk to you soon

I Need A Clone of ME!!!!!

Do you ever feel like this? I have decided I either need more hours in the day or a clone of myself to get everything done! There is so much that needs to be done and so much I want to get done and somehow I am just scratching by these days.

I wonder if I am just less organized?

OR

Has life just gotten so much more busy?

These are the questions wandering through my mind lately. Well, I have no answer. I do however have lots of excuses/reasons why I always feel (and am) always a bit behind. I suppose I am telling you all of this to let you know I am sorry I have not made my Friday posts the past 2 Fridays. I promise to try to do better. I actually write a post for you almost everyday - funny thing though, the post never seems to escape my mind through my fingers on the keyboard and onto the blog!

Well, enough rambling from me tonight. I hope you are all have a super fantastic weekend and I hope your week is the best ever for you!!! I will be back soon with photos to share and hopefully something inspiring for you as you continue your YITL journey with me!

Weekly Update #8

Hey Ladies - it is the end of yet another month - how have you been doing with your YITL???
This month has not been as eventful as last but I am ready to put together my Monthly Review this week. I did finish my Valentine's Day entry but I need to get it photographed so that I can share it with you all.
Don't forget we have an "Assignment" that you should all be working on. . .
Okay gals, for our 2nd assignment lets start working on our divider page for "The People That Touch My Life" section. Lets say we all get this done by The 1st week of March. You can do it - I have faith in you!!!! Okay gals, for our 2nd assignment lets start working on our divider page for "The People That Touch My Life" section. Lets say we all get this done by The 1st week of March. You can do it - I have faith in you!!!!
Well that is about all I have for you tonight Ladies - this is day 22 of my headache and I am not feeling very inspiring tonight. I hope you all have had a great week and that this coming week is SPECTACULAR for everyone!!!!!

Friday Update #7 - Another Holiday. . .

So, we all had another holiday for 2011 - Valentine's Day! Did you do anything special? Did you get any Pictures? I am gonna share mine with you here. . .

So, on Friday the 11th the door bell rings - no one at the door. Then I spied this white box on the ground. "Shari's Berries"? what the heck? I figured that one of Mom's friends sent her some blackberries (her fav). But, No - the box is addressed to me!!! Inside were these beautiful chocolate covered strawberries but I can't find a card - who sent them???? I finally found it - they were from Lizzy's boyfriend Richard - how sweet. My camera was sitting on the kitchen table so I posed a few shots and saved all of the paper info from the box for my YITL album.

Sunday the 13th Bryanna has us all over for a Valentine's Day lunch. She and Monkey have been working on the decorations for the party for several weeks and Monkey was very good and never spilt the beans - her Mom wanted it to be a surprise. So all of my Loves were there - nothing could be better!!!

Look at all of the pretty decorations they made - it made this crafty Mom very proud and pleased!

She even took the time to cut the pepperoni on the homemade pizzas into little hearts!

There was a little heart-flower dum-dum for each of us with our names written on them and then Monkey did a little "artwork" of her own on them. I saved the paper heart flower to add to my album also.
Oh, we also had grilled chicken salads - and yes, she cut the cucumbers into little hearts too!

Very personal yet simple gifts were bagged up for each of us too - it was just so sweet! My bag had some pretty, red nail polish in it. We also played some (very hard) Valentin's trivia games and everyone knew without me saying so that I was going to collect their answer pages when we were all done for my album.

My head was pounding (8 days straight with a headache), I broke my 2nd curling iron in a month that morning and I was exhausted, but I would not have missed this day for anything! It was probably the most special Valentine's Day I have had in years. I have the best family and I am so thankful for ALL of them!

I can't wait to get my pictures printed so I can do my pages for my album.

Have a GREAT weekend Gals - see you all soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Have a great day! Be a Sweetheart to someone today!

Toodles

Friday - I mean Saturday Update #6 - Another Great Idea

Hey girls - how ya all doing??? I am sorry I am late making my weekly update this week. It has been a TOUGH week for me!!! But I am here now. I got an email today from one of the "Lifers" Linda H, with a great idea. here is the email I got from her. . .

"Hi Marta,
I had an idea for my Year in The Life project I wanted to share with you.I plan to have all the pictures I take this year put on CD's and will put them in CD holders that fit in a binder that I bought at Office Max. I have such a hard time not using all my pictures that I take I decided I could pick and choose and still have all my pictures in my book. I'll put the CD's in the back of my binder.
Linda"

You can get these CD sleeves for about $7 at the office supply. I am adding them to my album as well at the end of the year. Great idea Linda - thanks for sharing with us!!!!

So, does anyone else have any great ideas to share with the group? Just send them my way and I will post them here for everyone to see.

Don't forget to check out the other page tabs at the top of the blog - you never know when I have added something new! Like tonight, I added a NEW assignment for everyone. Check it out!

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to get some pix on Valentine's Day for your Holidays and Celebrations section.

Toodles

Jan Month in Review

I decided I had too many photos that I wanted to include in my monthly review as well as some other memorabilia so I used 2 different page protectors for the month of Jan. But I did start off with my Jan card and listed some of the high lights of the month.

So this is the front side of page one for Jan. . .

I used the card with highlights and then added a couple of quotes and 3 photo collages

This is the back side of that protector - again I did a couple of collages and added some business cards and a menu

This is the 2nd page protector (different style) Here I have included a menu, a coaster, a logo off of a gift card and a tag from Build a Bear. I made it so if I wanted to, I could still open the menu - I highlighted the items we each ate.

This is the back side and last set of pix. Another menu (that you can open) and a few pictures

I had alot I wanted to say as well about the month so I did an 8.5x11 page inserted between my 2 big pages with journaling tidbits by day for the whole month (I took this from my calendar that I keep)

I used the frame file that Ann G shared with us and simply wrote January in it.
Here is what it looks like in the book. . .

Like I said, I had ALOT to say so it was 2-sided as well!

So how are you all doing on your Jan Month in Review????

I hope you are all enjoying this journey so far!

I have also posted a few more pages under the LAYOUTS tab if you want to see those.

Don't forget to share your layouts with me so I can post them here for everyone to see and be inspired by!!!

Toodles

You Guys Are GREAT!!!!!

I just have to tell you all how happy you make me. . .

I love how enthusiastic you all are with this project! I taught a class today at CQ and there were 4 of my YITL girls in this class, all 4 of you had your cameras with you to capture the day for your albums. The same thing happened at the last class I taught. WOW! I am so impressed! These ladies were taking pictures of each other, their projects and even me (BTW - I want copies of those for my album, so send them my way. . . .please). Chris even had her YITL note cards with her (out in the table as she worked). I got some photos of it to share with you all.

Do you remember reading in the (many) papers I gave you when you signed up for YITL about carrying around a stack of index cards held together with a ring to keeps notes on? Well, Chris has made one and says she takes it with her where ever she goes. Look at how cute this is. . .

The Front

The Insides The Back
It's very simple to make and very portable! Good job Chris - and thanks for sharing!

I was so inspired when I got home that I got cracking on my album. I got all of my pictures for the month of January edited and sent off to Costco for printing. I will pick them up in the morning and fill my pages while I watch the Super Bowl with the family (I am not really a football fan, but I love Gary and he is a fan).

One month down and eleven more to go!

Toodles

Friday Update #5 - SEW CLEVER

Well hello all of my YITL Friends! Can you believe it has been one month already? That's right we are already in the beginning of our second month on this project. How are you all doing with it? Are you enjoying the process? Are you taking photos and keeping notes and "stuff"? Are you looking at life just a little differently? I know I am. I see things as "stuff I need to put in my album" "Things I want to remember" and "Photos I need to take". I find myself much more in tune with all of my daily happenings now. It is kinda FUN!!!

I also want to share some clever ideas that Ann G. (from our group) came up with this week. She popped over today with her YITL Album and showed me a few of the pages she has been working on. I was so impressed I asked if I could take pix to share with all of you.

Ann has been busy working on her album and sewing on her pages. Look at this first one. . .

She took a standard 12x12 page protector, folded it in half and then in half again lengthwise. Then she repeated the folds across the width of the page. She then cut the tops of each new pocket, just inside the fold lines. Then she added a piece of cardstock inside the protector and sewed on the fold lines she made (leaving the center ones un-sewn) giving her twelve 3x3 pockets and two 3x6 pockets. The black cardstock gave the protector some stability while she sewed and then served as mats inside each of the pockets. Doing this gives you open pockets on both sides of the page protectors - makes it a lot easier to add your photos to the back side!

Here is the finished layout she did with her sewn protector - pretty COOL don't ya think?!?!

Then she did it again - she took this pre-made protector that had eight 3x3 pockets and one 6x12 pocket and sewed down the page between the last two 3x3 pockets and then cut off the last two 3x3 pockets and 3" off of the 6x12 pocket. (is that as clear as mud?) This gave her a customized 12x9 page protector.

I will be posting a few more of Ann's layouts in the "Layout" section of our blog for you to peek at and be inspired by. I really hope that more of you will share some of your layouts with me to post here. Thanks for sharing with us Ann!

Have a great weekend girls and I hope your team (if you are rooting for the Steelers) wins the Super Bowl! I will be back soon with more ideas and things to share - so check back often!

Toodles

Go Ahead - Give it a Try!

Hey Girls - I was just readin Ali Edwards' blog and today she is offering a free 12x12 digital layout template and also has a tutorial on how to use it. I thought some of you might want to give it a try or at least read the post. I will add the link to the tutorial on the Tutorials Page also so you can always find it. But The template and post link will only be here.
I hope you all have a great day - I get to go to the dentist today - yuck! Should I bring my camera????
Toodles

Friday Update #4

Hello Friends! How has your week gone? It has been busy around here - working on my new studio space, having the girls each day and all of the other stuff I mess around with daily. But even though it has been a busy week it has been a good week! I have not had a chance to actually work in my YITL album but I have been making notes on my calendar and taking pictures when I can. How are you guys doing on yours?

I also wanted to let you all know that we had 2 more gals join our group this past Saturday - I will be taking them their kits this afternoon. So join me in welcoming Sandy Kelly and Dawn Brown!!!!

WELCOME Ladies!

Another thing I wanted to remind you all of is the assignment for this month - To finish your divder page for your Blessings and Gratitude section before the end of the month. Well guess what? Today is the 28th - you only have a few more days to finish! I let you in on a little secret. . . I do not have mine finished! I have the front side done but not the back. I am going to finish it up tonight while the house is empty. Did you all see that Ann G finished hers and I posted it under the assignments page - take a peek if you haven't already. Anyone else ready to share their's? Just send me a picture of it online and I will get it posted to inspire the rest of us!!!!

WEll, girls I think that's it for today - have a SUPER GREAT weekend!

Toodles

PS - I found these great quotes on Gratitude that I thought you might like - maybe you will want to use one in your book???

What is the DATE STAMP For????

I have been asked what you all will be using the date stamp for that I suggested you buy for this project. So I figured I would just show you tonight since I just now used it!

I spent the days with ALL of my girls today and when I got home I emptied my camera bag and got all of the goodies I had saved from the day out to put in my collections box. Before I placed them in there I got out my date stamp (I keep it in the box) and stamped all of my goodies with today's date. I don't have my pix printed from our day together yet and my room is still in chaos so I cannot get these items into my book yet. But my photos are loaded onto my computer and all of the goodies are dated and tucked away safely so as soon as I am ready to play in my album all of my stuff will be handy! I wont have to try to remember what day I collected these items and I wont have to search for the pix that go with them (my photos are filed on my computer by date & subject matter). Viola - I will be all set - nothing could be easier!

So here are the items I collected today - I might use ALL of them in my album or maybe only some of them. I have the take out menu from where we ate today (with the items we ordered highlighted), the coasters off of our table, the tags off of the build-a-bear items and a receipt.

You can see here how the date is nice and clear but doesn't distract from the item I am saving. I think this is a super cool idea!

Here are some of the pictures I took today that go with my goodies. Today was a special day - so I made sure I had my camera with me! We started off with lunch - Monkey got to pick where we ate today. After lunch I got a picture of her outside the doors making sure the sign was in the picture too.

And of course my bug and her Mama too - just not with the sign - after all it was Monkey's choice - not theirs.

Next stop was Bugs FIRST trip to Build-a-Bear!!!! This is something I started with Monkey when she was a baby (we collected monkeys every month her 1st year). I want to do the same for my bug and right now they have lady bugs in the store - perfect!

As we were getting ready to leave the mall, my phone rang and it was Lizzy wanting me to meet her and Richard at the mall for shopping and dinner. So I had Bryanna just leave me there to wait for the next round of fun! We did a little shopping and then headed over to The Elephant Bar for dinner. It was way too dark for pix there but I did get one of Liz inside the mall.

So now I am all set (as soon as I have time) to play in my book and document this GREAT day I had with ALL 4 of my Girls!

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Toodles!!!

Friday Update

So how are you guys doing? Have you started (finished) your assignment for this month? Have you been taking pictures, saving memorabilia, and jotting down notes? I have been SUPER BUSY this week - we are redecorating my studio so everything is displaced and my house is a mess! But I have been using my calendar to jot things down at the end of the day each day. Nothing big just simple little notes so that later I can remember what happened on what day and add a little more "verbiage" for my YITL album when I have time. I hope you are finding a system that works for you so that this project can comfortably fit into your life.

As many of you know I love to read Ali Edwards' blog and this week I enjoyed looking over her Project Life pages she has made. Project Life is a Becky Higgins project that is very similar to our YITL project. I thought you might like to see what she has going on and that it might inspire you a little. So click HERE to see her most recent pages.

Well, I hope you all have a great week!
Toodles

Truer Words. . .

were never spoken! I found this quote the other day and I thought how perfectly this fit into our Gratitude & Blessings section that we are working on right now. I just had to share it with all of you girls - maybe you will find use for it in your albums???

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

~W.T. Purkiser

I hope you all have a great weekend. Take some pictures and jot down some notes for your album. And don't forget your assignment for this month!!!

Toodles

Permission to NOT Follow the Schedule!!!

Hey Ladies, I wanted to pop on here and give you permission to do something (not that you really need MY permission - haha) in your YITL Album. I want you to all feel free to jump in and work on anything in your YITL album. You do not have to stick to the quarterly outline. Go crazy, create whatever, where ever, whenever, you want in your album.

For example: We had a celebration here on New Year's Day and I wanted to be sure to get that in my album while everything was fresh in my mind. So I got my pictures printed, did some journaling and put it all together in my album. No sense in waiting till July, our 3rd Quarter to do this. There is no need for it to sit in my collection box that long. I had the time, and the stuff, so I did it! After I did that, I had a fun idea that I wanted to use for my divider page for the Celebrations section that New Years goes into. So I created that! I had the time, I had the supplies, so I did it!

This is not supposed to be a chore or a strictly regimented adventure. I want you to all have FUN with it! I want you to all be able to express yourselves creatively and on your schedule! So, go forth and create!

Toodles

WELCOME TO OUR NEW "YITL" HOME

That's right - we have our own special place to celebrate this journey we have embarked upon together. I hope you will take the time to become a "FOLLOWER" (in the right column) and subscribe to this blog (also to the right at the bottom) so that you can stay up to date and encouaged along the way this year.

Let me give you a quick tour. . .
We have five different pages of information (at the top) -
The Front Page - all of the updates and basic information
Quarterly Updates - a great reference for what we will be doing and when we will meeting
Layouts - I will post pictures of my finished layout and album pages here
Tutorials - Here I will post some "How-To's" for you
Assignments - Here you will find any assignments or challenges to work on

We have a "Links for Inspiration" area (in the right column) -
I have added a couple of Ali Edwards links here to inspire you and help you jump-start your creativity. I will continue to add more as we go along. Be sure to let me know if you have any you would like to share and I will add them here for the whole group to be inspired by

We have a "Search" area (in the right column) -
Here you can type in key words or dates and it will search for relevant posts on this blog

I have already transfered the "YITL" information from my "Spillin' the Beenz" blog to our new home, and there are lots of extras here too. Enjoy looking around and make sure you take advantage of using the "comments" area at the end of each post so I know what you think and if you have anything to add or questions you want to ask. Let's really make this a fun forum for us to use and to motivate each other over the next 354 days!
Toodles,
M

Update - Friday Jan 07, 2011

Hello Ladies! So in just a couple of days we will all be together starting to put together our albums - I hope you are all excited! Now that we are officially getting started I am going to do my first Friday Update. Every Friday by midnight I will make an updated post here for you all to read. Some weeks I may have pictures to share of what I have been up to or pages I have completed in my album. Some weeks it might be "brilliant" ideas I have come up with that I want to share. Others I may post links to sites or products I think might encourage you in your endeavor and with your creativity.

So for this 1st week, I want to share with you the lyrics to the song "Seasons of Love" from the Broadway show Rent. You may want to use some or all of these somewhere in your YITL album.
Enjoy!

Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure A year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love? Measure in love
Seasons of love. Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

It's time now to sing out,
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!

Oh you got to got to
Remember the love!
You know that love is a gift from up above
Share love, give love spread love
Measure measure your life in love.

Update - Tuesday Jan 03, 2011

I will be bringing my camera and white backdrop to our 1st meetings (the 9th & 14th) to take your pictures. So this is just a warning if you want to have your hair and make-up done. They will just be headshots but at least you will all have at least one current photo for your YITL album. Gary took mine on New Years Day since I was taking everyone's photo.

I really hate having my picture taken - but I did it!

Kit # 1

Here is what you will get in your 1st kit. . .

(1) 12x12, 3 ring K&Co Album
Lots of great Teresa Collins Papers and Bazzill Cardstock

Lots of divided 12x12 Page Protectors as well as some fun 8.5x11 Protectors

Some Teresa Collins Chipboard Elements, plus some calendars and tags designed by me

A Banner for the window in your Album Cover

These are not part of your kit, but things I suggest you get to go along with your kit.
A package of Rhinestones and a Rolling Date Stamp

And a photo box or some other container to use exclusively for your Year in the Life project photos and memorabillia