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