Project Life Catch Up: April 1-6 2014

EDIT//06.03.14// A lot of people really liked the calender I used for this page and I did too! This calender in this post is from a PL kit buuuuut I just made a bunch of similar free printables for you to use! Check them out here: Project Life Calendar Printables.

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Hey guys! I haven't posted about my Project Life pages since this post back on April 2nd and since I've been on a Project Life kick lately I'm even more motivated to share my most recent pages. I've been looking at a lot of different people's pages and getting lots of ideas.

Sometimes when you do this kind of project it's easy to use your old stand-by techniques without a second thought but I was relying more and more on just adding extra elements in the photo editor instead of actual embellishment. That's fine and all (especially if you're doing digital pages!) but my aim wasn't to do digital pages. It was a bit silly just to do everything digitally, print them out, cut them up, put them in pockets with the occasional embellishment. It is time for me to shake things up a bit in my scrapbooking. 

Here are my pages from April 1-6 that I just finished this past weekend:

In what I'm calling my signature style of "mish-mash-anything-goes" I love this page. Lots of bright and happy and fun memories.

The "April" Title card was a bit more muted then I'd like and it was hard finding elements that would go together to fill up the space. Don't you just love those letters though?

Holy moly. This calendar is probably my favorite part of the whole page! I think it'll be so neat to look back on this years from now. I didn't keep track of what we did or anything. I just kind of looked through pictures to jog my memory of what we did and for days I didn't have pictures  and didn't know I just kind of filled in whatever. (i.e. "Mommy working" and "TGIF" Lol.) I think I may use one of these every month. And actually keep track of things better for it. I love it! *The card is from the 5th and Frolic Edition Core Kit by Dear Lizzy. I think it's a Michaels exclusive. I love this kit.*

I had more journaling I wanted to do on this card so a little pull tab worked perfect. I love including some hands-on elements too. I think it's neat!

Before if I wanted to jazz a picture up with some text I would do it in the photo editor but I'm trying a bit more to use handwriting on my pictures. I definitely need a better pen for this but I like the way it turns out. And yes, that's me and little Boo Radley cuddling in bed. (Cell phone pic quality for sure. But thank goodness for cell phones because if not, I'd have a lot less pictures.)

This page was kind of "eh" in my book. But the memories are documented and that's all that matters, right?

Here's the neat part though! I came across this Flip Flap pages by Close to My Heart somewhere on the internet and I knew I just had to have them. They have all sorts of different sizes and there's an adhesive strip on one side to attach them right to your PL pages and you have a fun little way to add extra pictures or journal. You can even layer them for a little mini album within your album. Ahh! The possibilities! (This is perfect if you have one to two more pictures you want to add to a layout but not enough to justify adding another whole insert. Plus, it's a fun hands-on element!)

And moving on....our day trip to Big Trees State Park!

I used a Becky Higgins Design H Insert for our Big Trees State Park pictures. We didn't take a ton of pictures since we've been there a fair amount before, just not with Luna!

I forgot I had this too so I had to put it in. We had bought Luna a sticker book full of bear stickers at the gift shop. I needed to entertain her a couple days later and asked her to make mommy a bear card for my scrapbook. She happily obliged. This girl LOVES stickers.

This picture didn't turn out so well since I had a lot of glare on the photo pocket but how freaking cute is that picture? I had a mini running theme for these pictures of words on stop of that clear and green striped washi tape, as well as black handwriting/stamps.

 

I didn't have a ton of room for journaling so I included a insert card and used lots of tiny writing. The card is from that same 5th and Frolic Becky Higgins Core Kit. I slipped in our parking pass from the day as well.

 

Another Flip Flap page! The typed sticker saying are from various Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text packs. I LOVE these packs. Easy cute embellishment on the cheap. I have 3-4 different sheets. I'm making it my goal to get them all. Lol. Note the journaling right on the picture. I'm liking it! I used to not want to do it. What if I'm ruining the picture, I thought. Well, it's the digital age. Print another one. Problem solved.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole back of the insert but this is in the top spot. A mini collage of us and the HUGE trees. I used a combo of letter stamps using Staz On ink (a new favorite!) and handwriting for the embellishing.

A new favorite!!! QR video codes!! I've thought about doing this for a while but I couldn't help but thinking that it was a bit silly. QR codes haven't caught on much and in twenty years will I even be able to scan them? What will the next technology be? Then I figured it can't hurt if it's not around anymore or something happens to the links. It's pretty neat for right now.

I was sold on the QR video codes once I was reading someone's blog this past week that their 4 year old loved looking through the PL books and her favorite part was scanning the QR codes and watching all the home videos. I think I should still be able to scan them in a couple years and I'm pretty sure Luna will get a really big kick out of it. (And so will I!) Expect more QR codes in the future!

The last picture of the insert. Luna and Ryan at the warming hut after our hike, having some hot chocolate (Luna's first taste!) and Luna playing in the snow.

That's it for now! What I've learned on these pages: I love journaling/writing right on the picture and I love QR codes. Expect more in the future.

Thanks for taking a look! Let me know if the comments if there's any fun little "techniques" you've come across for Project Life. I'm open to anything!

-Mrs. 246

Yosemite in April

I got my nature fill this past Saturday. Friday night we got all packed up so we could leave early(ish) Saturday morning. We even turned Luna's car seat to forward facing for the occasion. (They say you're supposed to wait until they're two but she's almost there. Happy early birthday, Luna. Lol.) She actually threw up in the car when we were half way there. This child never throws up so I'm thinking the views might have affected her a bit. The Comfort Inn we pulled over near was nice enough to donate a towel to us for Luna to sit on. (Note to mommy self: pack car with paper towels and some sort of cleaner for next trip.)

By the time we reached Mariposa (a cute little foothill town), Luna was feeling much better. We had  to stop in Mariposa because there's always a taco truck at one of their parks and Mr. 246 was determined to have some taco truck. Lol.

It was about that point Luna took a really early morning nap. Hey there little sleepy Bean.

Driving near the park there were fields of poppies everywhere! The above picture isn't the greatest, but it's the best I could do with my little point-and-shoot while driving in super bright sunshine. So many of the hills just had almost completely orange sides. It was awesome! I've never been early enough in the year to see that.

Driving into the park is always nuts. You almost break your neck looking from one view to another. It's just so awesome. We actually ended up buying a 12 month pass (which I'm super excited about). If we go at least one more time it was worth the deal.

Once we were in the park, Luna woke up. I think instinctively she knew awesomeness was going on. The above picture is when we told her to "smile," lol. What a silly face.

Hey Bridalviel Falls! I see you up there!

Hey Upper Yosemite Falls! I see you too! I know it's prime waterfall time because of the snow melt but I was a little worried there wouldn't really be any since we've been in a drought but I have a feeling there may not be too many waterfalls later this summer.

We had an early lunch at the car before setting out, then it was off to the Lower Yosemite Falls trail. We picked this one for Luna because it's short, there's a pretty waterfall, and there are huge boulders that Mr. 246 loves to climb. Lol.

Here we are in front of Lower Yosemite Falls. There's a bridge that crosses the river so you get a pretty unobstructed view. In past years there has been so much water if you stand on the bridge you will get soaked from the spray but this year you only felt a teeny tiny bit of spray when the wind blew really hard.

Above is another view of the falls. If you can see where the arrow is pointing...that's a person. (If you look super close you can see lots of people.) That gives you some sort of scale of just how huge this waterfall is. Amazing, isn't it?

Luna wanted to go "smimming!" and it scared me how willing she would have been to go swimming in that water. Haha. Ahh, to be a reckless almost two year old.

There was obligatory rock climbing on the hike back. Luna thought rock climbing meant daddy holds her and she just walks up the side of rocks. It was pretty funny. She went as high as Ryan could lift her and she still wanted to walk higher. Haha.

Once she got the hang of it, Luna wanted to climb on everything. She found that slanted rock above and instantly decided it was a slide and would sit at the top of it and scoot her butt down saying "weeee!" as she did it.

The last time I was in Yosemite I was 8 months pregnant. I knew I probably wouldn't go that year once Luna was born so I was determined to go before she was born. As we were walking back to the trail head I remembered taking a picture in this spot and even though I didn't get the exact spot it was pretty cool to take a picture in the same-ish spot as last time. Once with me be pregnant, and then again with Luna herself.

There were more pictures throughout the day, most of it scenery. Truth be told once we got our "official" hike done with I didn't take as many pictures. This was my 6th trip to Yosemite and Mr. 246's 7th and since we were doing trails and areas we'd already been I didn't feel as inclined to take a lot of pictures. I think the next couple of times we'll venture out more but since it was Luna's first time. We wanted to go places that we knew would be easy and fun (and not stressful and scary) to take Luna too.

I was on a Yosemite kick yesterday after I had gotten home and I decided to see if maybe there was a random campsite available (they're pretty much booked solid already for the whole summer by this time of year) and there was!!! I won the lottery and we will be spending a night camping in the Yosemite Valley two weeks from now! Yay!!!!!! It'll be Luna's first camping trip so I'm really excited. (And a little nervous. There's two streams/rivers surrounding the particular camp ground we're staying in. Am I allowed to put my child on a leash? Can I be that parent?)

I even got a field guide at the gift shop and had fun looking up some trees. I think next time we'll go I'm going to spend a while trying to identify things. I always wanted to be that person who goes hiking and says, "See that plant? That's a blah blah blah. It only grows the last two weeks of this month at an elevation of between 2500 and 4500 feet. You can tell it's a blah blah blah because there are clusters of 3 leaves that grow together and the branches grow in multiples of 5. Native American's used to use this plant for..." and so on. Haha. I don't think I'll ever be that good but it's fun to do when you're looking at stuff and try to figure out what it is.

I can't wait to go on more day trips this summer. As much as I don't like the immediate area we live in, I love the fact that there are so many amazing places you can go for just a day or two. We're very lucky. :)

Has anyone else been someplace neat lately? Where do you plan on going this summer?

-Mrs. 246

Nature! Big Trees! Yosemite tomorrow!

"Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, delightful, even divine, places to die in, compared with the doleful chambers of civilization. Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain-passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action. Even the sick should try these so-called dangerous passes, because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand." - John Muir

Ever since spring has come I've been full steam into getting active and craving some nature. Last weekend we went to Calaveras Big Trees State Park which I love because it's a close-ish drive and so neat to see such enormous trees. Just look at the top picture...that's me standing on a fallen tree! Look how huge it is! (For reference, I am 5'6".)

We were surprised that the recent rains meant snow even at that elevation (approx 4000 ft) and there were still some small patches of snow on the ground during our hike even though it was 70 degrees out.

The park even has a "warming hut" near the trail heads where they have a fire inside in the middle of the room and they offer you warm drinks to warm up after your hikes. This weekend was the last weekend they had it open and it was pretty neat but almost a bit silly because it wasn't cold out. I did find out, though, that they have snowshoes for rent in the winter so you can wear snow shoes to go hike the trails. Maybe we'll have to do that sometime!

Why am I reminiscing about last weekend's trip this Friday night? Because I am getting pumped up! The car is packed and we are going to Yosemite tomorrow!!! I haven't been since I was eight months pregnant. (I got quite a few looks hiking about, lol.) Yosemite very well may be one of my favorite places on the entire earth. I feel so amazing about life when I am there. It really is the best getaway from life. It is the kind of place that "resets" you and refreshes you. The quote at the beginning of this post is from the second chapter of Meditations of John Muir (which I actually picked up at Yosemite two trips ago). When I first read this passage, I immediately stopped reading and just re-read it again and again because it spoke to me. (I'm not doing any "dangerous passes" but I never fail to feel "cured" and my apathy killed.) John Muir's writings repeatedly liken the beauty and greatness of the Sierra's to being it's own religion and it's they only temple you'd need. So, as some people are freshened each week by going to church, I am reset and refreshed by going back into nature.

I will be sure to take lots of pictures and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll leave you with just one more passage:

"So abundant and novel are the objects of interest in a pure wilderness that unless you are pursuing special studies it matters little where you go, or how often to the same place. Wherever you chance to be always seems at the moment of all places the best; and you feel that there can be no happiness in this world or in any other for those who may not be happy here." - John Muir

- Mrs. 246

This Week In Pictures {Week 13}

 

1. Santa Fe Turkey Stuffed Peppers (I cooked!) 2. Vanessa and I on our Monday afternoon escape to Big Trees State Park 3. Vanessa with her awesome dog Indy by one of the appropriately named "Big Trees". 4. Visited an apple stand on our way home. Bought Mr. 246 some apple syrup...I didn't even know that was a thing. 5. I've named this the "Running Canal". It's near our apartments. Perfect place to run/walk. 6. I've been kicking ass on my steps lately. I'm pretty sure I'll make my mileage goal for this week. 7. Finished my uncle's scarf! 8. Found a random outfit in my closet that fit and I actually liked it. 9. Ran for a couple days this week, but the sun found it's way out at least once a day. 10. Mailed out my packages! 11. I was angry at Ryan today (he took my keys to work with him) so to cheer everyone up he took us to one of our favorite places to eat, Mongolian Barbeque. 12. New running shoes obtained! And at half price. 13. The book I just started. Luna doesn't let me look at books in the library so I quickly grabbed whichever looked prettiest in the New Fiction section. It's pretty alright so far. 14. Luna's little garden is sprouting! 15. We got a new jogging stroller and I just had to test it out on some trails near our town. 16. Majestic Oak Trail. Beautiful.