30 Before 30 List

So every January I do what I think a lot of people probably do - think of all the things we want to change in our lives and try to come up with "resolutions".  Often the resolutions are so vague - " I want to eat out less" " I want to blog more " I want to go to the gym more often" "I want to go outside more". Then I think "ehh... resolutions are stupid - you can't make me do them!" (I have a problem with authority even if that authority is me telling myself what to do - I have to say no because nobody tells me what to do - not even me!) Anyways.. I had been seeing a lot of these "30 before 30" (or 26 before 26 etc) lists on the blogs lately and I thought it was a kind of a neat way to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish in a year - some that are tiny goals leading up to those big lofty resolutions and some things that are just silly.  Yesterday I turned 29 (and I'm hoping I at least look 15 by now!) so I came up with a list of 30 things I want to accomplish by the time I turn 30 - January 24, 2013:  

1. Clean out closets and donate everything I don’t need/use
2. Learn to use camera in manual mode
3. Buy reusable shopping bags and use them at the grocery store
4. Make more of an effort to shop local
5. Go on a road trip
6. Fix my bicycle and use it.
7. Visit Washington DC
8. Double my blog readership
9. Take a photo of Dustin and I together at least once a month
10. Read 24 books
11. Try out 30 new recipes
12. Take a class
13. Get a tattoo
14.  Let go of negative memories and relationships and focus on building happier and healthier relationships.
15. Discover 20 new things/places about Richmond
16. Celebrate a holiday at my own house.
17. Sacrifice something I don’t really need in order to save money
18. Go to the movies by myself
19. Hike 5 different trails
20. Go 10 days in a row without eating out
21. Decorate my house – put some art on those walls!
22.  Make 5 projects using my sewing machine (and one of them has to be entirely made of fabric – no paper!)
23. Cut my hair
24. Sleep 8 hours in a row- at least once!
25. Make something I have seen on Pinterest
26. Go to a festival
27. Double the items in my Etsy shop
28.  Finally create a wedding album (before I forget everything that happened!)
29.  See the final Twilight with Danielle
30. Organize the house and come up with a system to keep it clean

My Etsy Room

If you are a facebook follower you know that this weekend I spent cleaning up my Etsy space.  I haven't ever shared it - and now its organized(ish) - I thought I would share where I "work".  I have a studio upstairs for all my crafty adventures but I needed a separate space (because that space barely holds all the paper I own let alone anything else!) and since I really like working in the living room (but didn't want to completely take over that space) I decided to move all my Etsy stuff to the next best thing - the dining room.  What started out as a few small boxes a year ago has exploded into this:

 I used the metal shelves you can get at Lowes for organizing your garage - and I didn't realize they came in white which I like to tell myself makes them less ugly and out of place!! haha! As you can see I have a TON of stuff - a year ago I literally maybe had 2-3 of those plastic containers worth of stuff and now it is never ending!  And to be honest this is the beginning of it - I have more in closets upstairs, stuff in containers under our bed - shelves of old books in my studio and more stuff in the living room - seriously never ending!!

 This side is for the stuff I do not have listed - in other words stuff i need to hurry up and list so it can find a good home!!  Also stuff I'm hoarding because I'm having a hard time parting with it! I wish I could say all of it was organized but it really isn't - most of those boxes are stuffed with all sorts of random stuff!

 

These boxes are great - I got them off of ebay and I think they are for storing comic books but they make it easier for me to store little bits and pieces of paper, milk caps, greeting cards, stamps, tickets, photos, and much more!

 

And the other side is for all the items I have listed (and my postcards).  I learned early on to have a separate and very organized spot for items that are in the shop and ready to be sold - makes the packing and shipping process a thousand times easier!

 And finally my postcards!!  I know in my shop I say I have about 5000 unlisted postcards but its more like 10,000 or so and at least that many in the shop - crazy!!   Well hope you enjoyed my little tour - its nothing terribly special but it's where a I work!

And I am trying to unload some of the excess so I can make room for more! Check out my clearance section in my shop here.  I already listed almost 2000 postcards and I plan to list more in the upcoming week at super cheap prices!

Me & You Mini 6x6 Layout

I made another little 6x6 layout the other day that I wanted to share with you.  If you haven't noticed by now I am loving the Crate Paper Valentine's line and apparently have Valentine's Day on my mind.  Even though I am thinking about the holiday now I can guarantee you I will be one of the idiots at Hallmark the day of trying to find a half decent card from whatever is left over (oh yeah I am a procrastinator) - at least my husband works in a different town so I won't see him there.  One year when we were living in South Dakota we ran into each other on our lunch break at the local pharmacy buying cards!!  It was a small town and there weren't many places to go!  But anyways back to the layout:

 You can probably tell that I was inspired by the tags I made (see yesterday's post).  You can see a lot of the same elements - the polka dots - the embellishment. 

Trio of Valentine's Day Tags

Such A Lovely Day Mini Layout

I have been playing around with 6x6 mini layouts lately.  For some reason I find it difficult to scrap in 12x12 and am rarely really happy with the results.  I think I work better in smaller spaces (like tags!) so I have been working on 6x6 layouts to try to translate that to scrapbook pages.  I love using smaller photos (made with the collage function in Picasa) that way it has a similar scale to what you would see on a 12x12 (with multiple photos). 

 I love the little tags/titles that My Mind's Eye makes - and I love how it looks on this layout - if only they would make them larger so you could do the same layout but 12x12!

Portlandia

So yesterday Claudine Helmuth posted on her facebook page this clip from the show Portlandia:

OH MY GOSH!  What?? That was seriously the funniest thing ever... I immediately went and watched all the other clips from the show (hey I don't have much else to do.... haha) then I went to on demand and found that there were a few episodes on that so I watched a few and now I'm hooked ... and also sad that I just learned about it! 

I seriously am way too easily addicted to new tv shows.  And now that there is dvr I feel like I can't just let something go as easily as before.  Once I watch a pilot I feel like I'm invested and I can't stop watching - I think its a sickness!  I am also really easily influenced by others so if someone says they think a show is awesome (even if I don't particularly respect there taste) I feel like I have to watch it too - this is why I have a whole season of Walking Dead saved on my dvr that I haven't watched yet but can't bring myself to delete! Please tell me I'm not alone?!?!?!

So what tv show can you not live without?  And yes I'm sure most of you will claim "not to watch a lot of tv" and maybe think of my obsessive tv watching as "sad" but I'm ok with that because tv makes me laugh and laughing is good!  haha!

And on another note... I seriously have the darkest house ever!?!?!?  Ummm maybe when you built this house you should have put a few more windows in or a skylight or cut down a few trees?? (gasp! That is a HUGE no no in this community - all about the trees and "natural landscaping" aka no grass) Its been kinda dark lately and rainy which kinda stinks when I have these great ideas for blog posts but I have to wait for a day when there is enough light to take photos - at least its winter - taking photos in the summer is impossible with all the leaves on the trees - then we seriously have no natural light in the house!!

I (heart) You Tag

I know Valentine's Day is more than a month away but I am loving Crate Paper's Valentine's line and have been making lots of tags!

In Love Tag

Year in Review Mini Tips and Tricks

Tips & Tricks:

• You don't have to include EVERY photo you took last year – just pick a few of your favorite (or perhaps one from each month)
• This is a year in review MINI – it doesn’t have to be huge and it doesn’t have to take a ton of time to make.  I have made ones that are big (like this year’s) and have took hours and hours to make and I have made ones that are tiny and took only an hour or two.  The mini I made in 2009 was a small paper book very similar to my “one sheet wonder” – need ideas of how to make simple minis?  Check out my tutorials (see link at top of this page).  File Folder minis or children board book minis would be great for this project too! 
• Try to include at least one photo of everyone who is important to you. Have 4 kids? Make sure to include all of them - don't leave a kid out! (ok so I don’t have kids but I guess that was probably an unnecessary tip haha) 

• Use the mini you make to help you determine what photos to focus on for the next year.  After you are finished with this book you will see gaps in the subjects you are choosing to photograph.  For me this year it was the month of December – yep I didn’t take a single photograph during December!!  How crazy is that?  Also I frequently see that I don’t take many pictures of myself or my husband.  My book this year was about 90% pictures of my nephew – which is ok because he’s adorable of course!  But maybe next year I will take a photo or two of someone else in my life!!
• Get others in on the action!  Have each of your children (or your husband) to create a page – include a photo of them and have them right down their favorite moments from the year. 
• Photo editing software is your friend!  I use Picasa – its free and super easy to use.  My favorite function of the software is that it allows me to create photo collages.  This is great for small (5x7 or 4x6 size books) – take only two photos and create a photo collage – have it printed at your local photo printer and now you have two photos for the price of one and the smaller sizes lets you include more photos in your book.
• Let your photos be a page!  Try gluing two 4x6 photos together and punching holes in them letting them be a page in your mini.  By gluing them together you create a quick and sturdy page.  I usually alternate between these and cardstock pages – it allows me to include more photos without feeling like I have to make more scrapbook “fancy” pages.   
• Most important - it's YOUR year in review.  Include the things that are important to you!!  

Possible things to include in your mini:

• Big Events - birthdays, holidays, graduation, family reunions - make sure to get this big moments from the year!
• Trips you have taken - that big trip you took to Disney last summer - make sure to include it!
• Pictures of you - make sure you include a picture of you - it is YOUR album after all!
• Everyday life - things that you did every day - places you go (the gym, school, etc) or daily rituals (morning coffee, nighttime story, etc) - maybe even write out a typical day in the life
• Things you liked/loved/were obsessed with:  have something you couldn't live without this year?  (starbucks coffee, ipad, American Idol) - make sure to document it!
• Places you frequented - In 2010 we spent Saturdays at the local Farmer's Market - I made sure to include it in my mini.
• Hobbies - include a picture of your craft room or other hobbies you have - or list them.  Enjoy a good book?  List out the books you read this year!
• News Headlines- this one is my favorite!  Include some of the big headlines from the news and pop culture for a fun look back later!
• Friends - they are a part of your life so remember to include them in your book.  Have a weekly coffee with your BFF or a monthly girls night out?  Make sure to include them.
• Picture of the place you live/town you live in - include a picture of your house or your town - you never know when you might move and it would be fun to remember where you were living at the time.

Pin It

2011 Year in Review Mini

Warning: This post is photo heavy!!  This little mini turned out to be not so little!  I wanted to share with you how it all turned out though so here are all the photos:

 

Make sure to check out my Year in Review Tips & Tricks post!
Pin It

Hello 2012 - Goodbye 2011!

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday(s).  I spent this past weekend working on a 2011 Year in Review mini album. It was great to look back and relive some of the happier moments from last year but I gotta say I'm not disappointed to see it go!  Here's to hoping 2012 is a thousand times better than 2011!

And I am in this place now where I measure how happy I am with a mini I have made by how much stuff is sticking out of it.  I am definitely loving this little mini and all the "stuff" I put in it.  And as you could have guessed - I will be sharing more of this book this week.