3rd Quarter is in the books!!!

I did it! I did it! I really really did it! (kid history, anyone?)

I've been using every spare moment of free time to work on my 3rd quarter Project Life album, and finally today I finished it!! It is done & ordered. Now I just have to wait for it to get here!!

Wanna see?? You can check it out...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Now to finish 2nd & 4th quarters (*gasp*cough*sigh*) and TRY my very best to KEEP UP with 2014!! 

almost half way there!!

Here we are, just one week away from the end of the year. And here I am, still 29 weeks away from completing my 2013 Project Life. *siiiiiigh*  I've not given up. Not yet. But I do know myself well enough to know that if I am too far away from DONE too far into 2014, this project will never get done. I've seen it happen - with 2010, and 2011, and 2012... I'm sensing a pattern, no?

So yesterday I sat down and made a list of the weeks that I still need to finish. I'm not sure if you remember, so I'll tell you again, that I am printing (okay, let's assume  I get done) 4 books for the year... one for each quarter. I've actually finished and printed the first quarter. And when I wrote out my list, I only had 6 weeks of the 3rd quarter left to do. So I figured third quarter would be a good place to start up again. At least MAYBE I can get one more book printed before the end of the year. That might actually be doable!!

After I made my list and formulated my plan, I set to work, and actually managed to knock out 2 weeks yesterday evening!! This is looking good folks! If I can get a week an hour done, I might have a shot here!! True, that's still 30 hours of scrapping, but hey! One bite at a time, right?!

Okay. So here's week 29. Just LOOOOOK how tiny she was!! Man, time flies!! This was the week that we went to the lake to go swimming, Jane came to stay for a day or two, and the kids left for vacation with Grandma & Grandpa H. This week the puppies continued getting used to each other, as it had only been a few days of being a 2-dog family at this point. Also this week, our good friend came into town to interview for a position at the plant here. It was exciting to even consider the possibility of living close to our friends and getting to hang out again like we used to!

page 1

page 2

both pages together

(Click to view credits)

Week 30... This week Lucas and I were kidless. He took a few days off of work, and we painted like crazy people. We got both Isaac's and Meagan's rooms totally gutted, repainted, reorganized, and put back together. Also, we got Sebastian's closet cleaned out and organized, which was no small task (he's a pack rat). Lucas and I had a few dates while the kids were gone... Uptown Cafe (see week 29...it's that yuuummy breakfast sandwich), YogoLand (see below....yum as well!), and walks in the park. We stopped at one park in town we had never been to and checked out the covered bridge. We had only ever canoed under it (last year while the kids were on vacation), so we decided to see it from the top side.

Page 1

page 2

both pages together

(Click to view credits)

And just a note, here I am half-way (almost) through the year and finally I've worked out a format that works best for me for Project Life. I like the big photo on one page, and blocked photos and cards for the rest. I like simple, not cluttered. Just tell the story and show the pictures...nothing fancy. So I'm planning to carry this format through the rest of 2013, and probably continue with it in 2014.

Always playing catch-up

No surprise to myself whatsoever, I am seriously behind on my Project Life for 2013. I started the year out (like I do every year) with hopes that this year would be different - that I would keep up and stay on track. I should just know better. But I keep trying. I've still not given up. I'm plugging along... just much more slowly than I should. 

It's been a small eternity since I've shared my PL with you. So, I figured, since I'm playing catch-up in real life, I could play blog catch-up as well. I DID manage to finish and print my Project Life for the 1st quarter of 2013, and for that I am severely proud of myself! I did start book 2 (April - June), but sure didn't get very far! Wanna see?  I did the first week in the book... week 14... and that's where it ended. 

 

At the time, it was well into the 3rd quarter, so I decided to switch up and try to get current and stay current on those 3 months instead. Did I succeed? No. Did I do better? Yes. Better. So here's what I have to show for Q3 so far...

Week 27: July 1-7

Week 28: July 8-14

And lots of 'New Puppy' add-ons for the week!!

Then, still in the third quarter, but skipping ahead to the END of the quarter (and working backwards...because sometimes I just do weird things), I have these 2 weeks...

And week 39 (which will be the last week in my book)...

 I know I say this often, but I'm going to say it again... I am NOT giving up on finishing this project!! I think I just need to simplify and get it DONE. I really like the format of my weeks 27 and 28. I'm thinking I might stick with something like that. Maybe, just maybe, if I'm not reinventing the wheel every week, I will save myself some time. Novel idea!!  We'll see how it goes!

Back in action...again.

I feel like a stranger to my own blog... like I've managed to sneak backstage, but I really don't belong here.
Since I last posted a month ago, I figured it was time. I'll ease back into things, and share some layouts with you today. But I AM now operating with a new planner (I'll try to come back and share about that), so perhaps I can actually begin to plan some blog time into my craziness that I call life.

Anyway.

Can I tell you something? I love Halloween time. I love the colors. And I love the decorations. And I love the candy. Oh, sweet candy! And I love the digital kits that come out at Halloween. (No, I'm not saying this to be a sales person... it's the truth!)  Something about the kits - the black and gray. The purple and orange and green. The angsty moody kits, the fun and kid-friendly kits. They all make me happy.... maybe because I have a very complicated personality that is both fun and kid-friendly as well as angsty and moody? I digress...

So anyway, that being said, this has been a good week for me. TLP's designers have been releasing tons of fun Halloween goodies this week, and I WANT.THEM.ALL!  I have already snagged a few of them, and have major plans (maybe next week while Lucas is traveling... I always seem to think that's when I'll get to play, and it always seems to turn out that i have ZERO free time when he's gone) to go back and grab a few more. For real, you should go check them out. They're having a big Halloween bash, with giveaways and games and prizes and whatnot.  Fun times, my friends.

Okay, so I managed to find time yesterday to finish 2 pages! What?! Two pages in one day is unheard of anymore. So, yes, I was pretty excited about that.

Click layout to view credits

Click layout to view credits

Sandy Bottoms

Last weekend we made a trip to Ohio for a day with family. While our schedules have been crammed full lately, I'm SO glad we made the time to get there. We had a great time!

It was the first time we had traveled with both dogs (other than to the vet). It was also the first time either of the dogs had had a chance to play in water. While Weimaraners are water dogs, apparently Dublin did NOT get the memo. He's not such a fan of water. Translation....hates it.... so much so that when we go running, he will run around rain puddles so he doesn't get his feet wet. Seriously. He's not a fan. So we weren't sure how this pond playtime was going to go. As it turned out, it wasn't so bad after all (although I'd say he's still not a big fan of water).

First things first... right away he and Arya sniffed out a dead crayfish under the dock. Dublin snagged it, tossed it up on the beach, and proceeded to roll all over the dead fish like it was his long lost friend (see its claws sticking out under his cheek here? Ewww). Weird. And gross. But apparently it made him happy (just look at his goofy smiley face in the 2nd picture)

For the longest time he watched safely from the dock as the kids splashed and played. He wanted so badly to play with them, but he just wasn't willing to get wet in order to do it. So he looked on longingly, wishing he could be part of the action.

This is my niece, C.

And goofy Meagan, of course!

 

And C's little sister, D. The girls had a great time playing together all afternoon! 

Finally, at some point, Dublin decided that  he would test the waters. There was a football that he wanted, so he very cautiously tiptoed in. He never dared to go out far enough to where he couldn't reach and was required to swim.... that is until I scooped him up and plopped him out into the deeper waters. He swam just fine, but wasn't too happy about the whole thing.

Let's face it... this is NOT a look of joy on his face. But hey, at least he retrieved his football!

Arya seemed to have less of an opinion on the water in either direction. I think she was okay with it, but she didn't go in because Dublin wasn't going in. Plus, she had quite an affinity for the sand and was perfectly content to dig down into the sand and make a cozy little spot for herself.

Cracks me up!!! She looks like a cartoon character!

So, that, in a nutshell was our day with family. We went to the park and did family photos. We cooked out. We went swimming. The kids played on a big giant water slide. And the dogs ran around outside all day in a cloud of happy puppiness. It was a great day! So worth making the time to get there!

Of course, I had to get the memories into my 2013 album. Here's my 1st page... Dublin and his crayfish.

(Click to view credits)

The 1225

These are OLD photos - I pulled them out of the 2009 archives (and I can't beleive it's been that long since we took this trip)! I was prompted to go digging for these pictures based on the fabulous train doodle (see it there in the photo strip?) that Mirjam of Pink Reptile Designs released this week! I saw it, and instantly this fall colors tour came to mind. What a great day! I will never forget how awe-inspiring those 2 steam engines were as they rolled into the station rainy darkness of early morning. Indescribable really. So anyway, I dug out a few of my favorite photos from that trip and put together a quick layout. I think I need to go back and properly document that trip. Perhaps this is the first page of that. (If only I had infinite free time *sigh*)

(Click to view credits)

Our Happy Place

Here it is, the beginning of August, and I have FINALLY finished my album for the 1st 3 months of 2013. That's not really all that great of a time table, but hey! Done is done, right?! I decided this year to to a combination of Project Life pages and regular scrapbook layouts. I just merged them all together in one book and printed the book. The benefit of doing it this way is that everything is in one book, all nice and neat. There's no need for a separate album for Project Life and other layouts, is there? ???
The downside to taking this approach is simply this: EVERYTHING has to be done before you can print anything. I had to go through all of my photos for the 1st 3 months and make sure I had everything done that I wanted to do. Every weekly spread. Every individual layout. Everything. That takes time. More time than I anticipated... although maybe that has something to do with not having a lot of free time anyway??  Maybe.

So, here's the last layout I did for my 1st 3 months of 2013:
I have a whole series of photos (no surprise there) of one of our walks to the woods. They were some sweet pictures that I couldn't stand to exclude from our album.

This is what it will look like in the album...

So, as soon as the page was done, I uploaded it to my Shutterfly album, saved it, and ordered it. It looks like I should get the book sometime on Monday! I'm excited to finally have book in hand, something to look at and hold and look at some more.

Now, for devising some genius plan for getting caught up. Because at this rate, it will be mid 2014 or later before I get done with 2013... that can't happen! Or, it just might happen... we'll see.