December Daily: The Beginning!

Oh December Daily! I tried you for a very short time last year and I never finished you! Maybe this year will be the year.

I've been Pinterest-ing lots of stuff to get ideas for the past month or so but even with all that guidence I keep expecting some sort of set directions on what you're supposed to do. I've come to the conclusion it's kind of whatever you want which leads me to feeling like this as I put it together...

I see lots of people doing their basic layouts so they just plug in their pictures and whatnot. I wanted to do that. I really did. I just could not figure out how to pick stuff out when I didn't even know what I was supposed to be showcasing for that day. So yes...I'm definitely just making it all up as I go along. I've made my own unofficial rules for myself to keep myself sane:

•  Use your own handwriting dammit! You'll get it done a lot quicker if you're not fiddling with a typewriter.
• Things do NOT have to be perfect. Getting it done happily is a lot better than hating the project and everyone around me.
• I am not a professional scrapper in any sort of the way. I am not a designer. I am a regular person and it's okay to scrap like one. I do not have time to be all Martha Stewart about it. Lol.
• Anything goes. Just get it done. 

Anyway, on to the pictures....(and in keeping with the keep-myself-sane way of life, they are not ideal pictures but I got them done so that's what counts. Haha!)

I love love love how the cover turned out. Little button tree! I'm so proud of you! (Also, took a lot longer than I care to admit to get the sizing/layout just right.)

I'm also in love with the title page. It's impossible to get a proper picture of because it's set on a clear page so you may have to use your imagination as to how it looks in person and without glare.

Next up: Intro/first page. The calendar is a printable from Stitch In Time. I'm going to write a little something each day.

These pages are all actually November because I just simply couldn't wait to decorate.

Here's the other side of the insert along with pictures of us decorating. I'm doing #30lists as well so throughout my album there will be lists!

The page on the left was inspired by Luna and a little story of the "Magic Christmas Star." We finished decorating the tree and she declares that it "needs a star on top!" What the heck? You're two and a half! How do you know it needs a star on top?! Lol. We didn't have a star which prompted a trip to Target. On the way she said we were getting a "Magic Christmas Star!" Hahaha. A day or two later when we were watching a Christmas episode of Paw Patrol I realized that's where she learned it from but it really threw us for a loop. Haha! It was super cute!

The right page is our Elf On the Shelf's letter from his first day of visiting! He brought breakfast from the North Pole. I'll include pictures of that later when I get prints made again.

The next page includes my list for Day #2 of listing. On the 4x6 wood insert I'm going to put a picture of some sort when I get it printed.

The other side of the 4x6 is Day #3's list and a 2x2 shaker page of all our new ornaments that we got for the year. There's one for the Columbus Zoo, the Oakland Zoo, Big Trees State Park, Rudolph (since she watched it for the first time this year), and a polar bear (because that's what Luna picked out.) I'm sure we have some other ornaments somewhere in the house. I try to pick up an ornament anytime we go somewhere neat so then we can remember all those fun times each Christmas.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't looked ahead to tomorrow's (12/4/14) listing prompt for #30lists do not scroll down!

On the other side of the shaker page I did my list for tomorrow. :)

If you've really been paying attention you'll realize I have no pictures from December in here yet. Lol. I've got some editing to do tonight and hopefully I'll print them and add them in tomorrow! I want to try to keep us because as soon as we leave for Ohio I probably won't be touching the rest of the month until January. Lol.

Hope you enjoyed looking! If you're doing December Daily as well leave a link so I can check out your pages!
-Mrs. 246

Days 6-12: 30 Days of Lists [September 2014]

30 Days of Lists is kind of like a "list-a-long" where all month long in September you write your list for the prompt of the day and share it with others to see! There are a ton of different ways people present their lists and this is mine:

• If you'd like a tour of this month's list book check out this post! 
• Check out days 1-5 of my book here. 

September 6th: This list is more like my/Luna's entire evening routine rather than what I do right before bed.

  
September 7th: Notice this is a short list. Lol. None of these do I actually enjoy...I just love the end result. Lol. Least favorite "chore": cooking, hands down. Thank goodness for Mr. 246.

September 8th: I am not a sophisticated person. And that's okay. This is more a list of all-time favorites. Just as I am terrible with remembering movies, I'm terrible at remembering books after I've read them.

September 9th: This was an odd prompt. I didn't quite know what direction to take it. Lol.

September 10th: Picture is actually from today but it showcases my current project which I am in LOVE with. 

September 11th: Mostly a craft list but with some random things thrown in. I couldn't think of very many "life" things I've finished with and projects seemed the easiest to list.

September 12th: Oh! A night in! Maybe it's the introvert in me but we pretty much spend all our nights in. I haven't tired of it yet! Haha. Oh, and what's that you spy in my picture...is it a Whirley Pop?! It sure is! (Bass Pro edition! Lol.) It's our newest exciting obsession. Best purchase ever!

If you're doing #30lists please feel free to leave your link! I love checking out the different ways people present their lists and the things they come up with!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

-Mrs. 246

Days 1-5: 30 Days of Lists [September 2014]

30 Days of Lists is kind of like a "list-a-long" where all month long in September you write your list for the prompt of the day and share it with others to see! There are a ton of different ways people present their lists and this is mine. If you'd like a tour of this month's list book check out this post!

I plan on posting my lists on Fridays so you know what that means...I've got my first week of lists done!  

September 1st: The picture is horrible cell phone quality but I still wanted to include it. It's Luna playing her first "board" game, Jumping Jack! A big first if I do say so myself and it was a super special day since Mr. 246 and I both had the day off.

September 2nd: Picture is of some awesome notebooks I found at TJ Maxx. Every 20 pages or so they have a whole page of quotes/picture. So cute I had to get three. What will I use them for? No clue!

September 3rd: Oh gosh. Time is one of those things I ALWAYS wish I had more of.

September 4th: I was about to list my projects I plan on finishing and then when I thought about it, I'm probably not going to be finishing much so I had to tweak the prompt a little. Lol. It's hard to do so many projects with working full time and attempting to have a life. I love the picture...it's little Halloween stuff Bean and I have been working on. We have to get started suuuuper early since it takes 2 year olds a while to do anything. Lol.

September 5th: Things to nurture this month....my family and myself. And appreciate this time in our lives.

If you're doing #30lists please feel free to leave your link! I love checking out the different ways people present their lists and the things they come up with!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

-Mrs. 246

30 Days of Lists! My September 2014 Minibook!

It's that time again! 30 Days of Lists! I knew I would be super busy to do any sort of high-maintenance #30lists project for this month so I spent an afternoon last week getting my book all ready to just write my lists and be done!

Let me take you on a tour!
 

The front cover is kind of a yellow/gold vellum sheet laid over some yellow cardstock. I love being able to see things peeking through. I did this same sort of cover for my last minibook and loved it so I just had to do it again.

After the "Title Page"/Cover I made a little introduction type page. I thought maybe it would be a bit odd just to jump into lists without any sort of explanation included. Just picked out a couple Project Life cards to paste in.

Here's my little write up about 30 Days of Lists. I used a sketch pen in my Silhouette to do the writing. You'll see more of that in a bit...

And here's my layout plan for each day's list:

• On the left of each page: patterned side of paper with a 4x4 photo and a little strip of washi tape and a stamp of that day's date.  
• On the right of each page: Plain white with nothing but the prompt so it's all ready for me to fill out for that day's list.

See? Easy-peasy! Ready for me to fill out each day and not too much crafting at all so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it. (Note: "Today's To-Do List" prompt taken from the 30 Days of Lists, March 2011 list!)

Picture, washi tape, and date on the left....

Prompt and space to list on the right...while assembling my book I already included all the prompts and used the Silhouette sketch function to draw out the prompt header for each page.

The book is 6x6 inches because I hit the easy button and used a bunch of paper from two 6x6 paper pads. I decided this was an awesome way to make a mini listing book because:

1. I already had a couple 6x6 pads to choose from. (I love when I can use supplies I already have!)
2. I didn't have to cut anything -- it was all 6x6 inches to start with.
3. I was able to have pretty paper on one side so I could pretty things up but I also was able to use the white backs of the scrapbook paper for a clean, easy-to-read list.
4. It looks so uniform! And put together! (Well, at least in my opinion, hehe.)

There you have it! I'm excited to start listing! I'm glad I took the time to put this book together. It just looks so official. I got the binding done at Office Max for around $3. Well worth it, I think. I got the super big coil because once I add the extra photo and matte on each page I expect it to fatten up quite a bit. If not, I can always get a smaller coil. :)

If you're a #30days lister and participating in the blog hop please feel free to leave your link! I would love to see what everyone else is coming up with for next month! Alternatively, check out the other posts on today's blog hop by visiting here. You can also find more listing goodness by searching #30lists on social media or visiting the Flickr group.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

- Mrs. 246

P.S. If you'd like to see my 30 Days of Lists from last September 2013 (Project Life Style), click here. Here's a quick peek of what I did for it:

Days 18-22: Thirty Days of Lists

I'm getting close to the end. Can I just say how much I love the look of all of the lists together in a Project Life layout? So awesome. I'm really excited I decided to do that. Alright...I have four more lists today and I'll all caught up with posting since my break. Here we go:

Does this list look a little empty to you? I was a bit put off that this list happened to fall on a 4x6 layout instead of a 3x4 because I don't have much to put on this list. I just really don't like asking for help. 

I'm really particular about how I like things to be and if I ask for help it's either more work than just doing it myself (because I have to explain everything and I get really bossy and it's terrible for my relationships) or I'm secretly upset because it isn't done the way I like it. 

Am I revealing too much about myself here? It's really quite terrible, isn't it? Well, a lot of this project deals with learning about yourself and self reflection and it's definitely doing that.

 

A lot of these qualities are what I strive to be. I just thought of one more thing just now: I really like it when someone is really particular or has a really strong interest in a particular thing. It's kind of hard to explain. I just like it when someone has a "thing," like if someone had a "thing" for collecting panda objects because they really like pandas (really random choice, I know). Then this person has to buy a particular plate because it has a panda on it and they really like pandas. I think it may stem from the fact that I have so many things I'm interested in it just really calms my soul to know that there are people that can pledge allegiance to a particular thing or hobby or habit. I think I'm a bit envious of it.

Also, this list looks a little unfinished because I had forgotten to add something. I couldn't think of the word for what I wanted to write. What's it called when someone has a strong backbone about things? Strong willed? I don't know if that's quite the right word so that's why I left it blank until I could figure out what word I'm thinking of.

 

I think the most comforting thing on this list (besides my family, of course) is that I'm re-reading HP (again, haha). I've had the urge for a while but I've been putting it off. I really like re-reading it in the winter months. It's just so perfect to get cuddled up after a fresh bath or shower and crawl into bed and dive into the wizarding world. It's the perfect escape. To the perfect place. (I don't think I've mentioned it in the blog yet, but I am so so so so so excited for the new movie!)

 

This prompt made me laugh when I read it. What a joke. Lol. My diet isn't too terrible. I think a lot of my issues is portion control. We like to eat large quantities of food but most of the time the actual food we're eating isn't too terrible. Oh, and cheese. We've joked before that cheese (all kinds of cheese) is pretty much its own food group in our house.

 

I'm not gonna lie, I made this card the night before last and I had a pretty interesting dream last night that I'm disappointed didn't make it onto this card. I had a dream that Ryan was injured in some sort of accident at the mall and it left him in a pretty bad condition. (As I retold the dream to Ryan he says he was injured in a mall kiddie train accident, haha.) For some reason - with the disabilities he had when he was recovering, he would fit or make it in doors so they gave him a fenced in area to live in while he recovered. We were apparently living on a college campus so his fenced-in cage was on campus and students would see him as they walked to class and it was mighty awkward so I would only visit him at night. Ryan was not pleased that dream-Alex did this. Oh well. Pretty weird though, right?

Woooo! Caught up! Also: Happy First Day of Fall!!! I feel like I should do something to celebrate but I haven't decided on what yet. Hmmm....

Want to learn more about my list project/"30 Days of Lists"? Please visit my original post to learn more!

Want to see more lists? Search for the hashtag "#30lists" on Instagram or Pinterest to see more! Or you can go to the #30lists Flickr Group. And if you're a Twitter user, you can check out even more lists here.

-Mrs. 246
 

Day 12-17: Thirty Days of Lists (PL Layout Included!)

 

TA-DA! The second page of my 30 Days of Lists is done! Pretty, right? My last #30days update ended on Day 11 so we'll get caught up. 

Side note: I'm back! I had a short bout of depression and a severe case of the "blahs" but I'm back now! (I'm pretty sure it was induced from a new medication I was taking. Went off of it and now I'm back to normal. If only every bad mood was as easy of a fix.) Thanks for the little break. Also, I took a break from reading some blogs too so if I've been silent, I apologize. Everyone needs a little break every now and then. :)

Alright, down to business. Here's Day 12...

Now, September isn't my favorite month at all (other than school starting...I loved school starting!). I think my favorite part of September is pretty much the fact that I'm one step closer to the time of year I really love: October, fall, and Christmastime! :)

While I was writing out this list I asked Ryan for some input and apparently I have a lot more than 5 but this was all that I could fit on the 3x4 card. Haha. #3 is probably the most bothersome. I get slightly jealous of people who are a bit more of "dreamers" but at the same time I can't help but secretly thinking "Oh that is never going to work out." I know, I'm terrible. That's why it's a bad habit, right?

Our weekends are all pretty much the same. It may be lame and not very exciting to others but we're homebodies and we have a small child so our options are limited. I love the weekend though. It recharges me so I can tolerate another working week. :)

This one's pretty self explanatory. That's pretty much everything in our junk drawer too. Mr. 246 cleaned it out a week or two ago and this is all that remains. Now that I'm typing this up...I totally should have taken a picture too. Oh well.

 

I had a hard time choosing who I would pick for this list but in the end Ryan won. "My Warning Signs" refers to the signs I emit when I'm overwhelmed or done with something and not feeling well, or I'm about to turn into a pumpkin. He knows them all. 

He's just that good. The "puddles" refer to the pitcher of water we keep on the counter. I'll admit it...sometimes I'm too lazy to get water if the "puddle" is empty since it takes so long to fill up a cup. (We have a filter thing on our tap.) Therefore the puddle must always be filled otherwise I'm probably getting slightly dehydrated. (Ryan chose "puddle" as a reference to dogs drinking out of puddles. Lol.) 

The green light refers to the Wiimote charging station in bedroom. It has a green light when it's charging at night and it's ridiculous. It seriously lights up the whole room. It's terrible. He's heard me bitch about it enough. Haha.

The Luna one is pretty self explanatory.

"Sleep equations" is what we call my sleeping process. I have a ridiculous amount of things that must be in place before I can sleep. (i.e. proper pillows, proper blanket, proper temperature, proper positioning, my "double eye patch", ect...)

I got excited about this one but slightly overzealous by making so many spots on the grid but I do like the grid form for listing. It's a bit different.

Okay, so I'm getting caught up. I'm going to have another post in a while or so to get caught up. Woooooo!!


Want to learn more about my list project/"30 Days of Lists"? Please visit my original post to learn more!

Want to see more lists? Search for the hashtag "#30lists" on Instagram or Pinterest to see more! Or you can go to the #30lists Flickr Group. And if you're a Twitter user, you can check out even more lists here.

-Mrs. 246
 

Day 11: Thirty Days of Lists

Luna and Ryan are the best family anyone could ask for. And yes - Ryan taught me how to change a diaper. I had a C-Section so Ryan was taking care of Luna while I was recovering, by the time I was ready to change a diaper I had no clue and Ryan walked me through it. Also, Ryan is the most patient person in the world. He currently has a job tutoring autistic children and I can think of no one better suited for such a job. I couldn't do it.

Luna's a good teacher too. I finally have to hold myself accountable because I have this small impressionable human being watching my every move. Children learn through observation and I don't want her observing any of my bad habits. She helps me be a better person.

And Boo...it's true...if I'm really upset about something sometimes the only thing that can help me feel better is cuddling with my little puppy.

Want to learn more about my list project/"30 Days of Lists"? Please visit my original post to learn more!

Want to see more lists? Search for the hashtag "#30lists" on Instagram or Pinterest to see more! Or you can go to the #30lists Flickr Group. And if you're a Twitter user, you can check out even more lists here.

-Mrs. 246