My little project is finished and ready to go. In the “Reclaiming My Time” class at BPS, we spent three weeks thinking about how we use our time, keeping track of our time, and making a wish list of how we’d like to spend our time. Karen asked us to group all the things we do in a week into categories. I ended up with 13 groups, 8 of which are in the book. The other five I’ll do no matter what, so my intentions there aren’t so important. Thinking all this through was very helpful to me. 

Another trick I learned from Karen’s blog was to make lists. So each two-page spread includs an envelope that houses the lists I’ve made to help me stay focused on the things I want to accomplish. For instance, I made a list of 41 books I’d like to read this year. In 2009 I read 36 books, so it’s possible I might read 41 books, but that’s not the purpose of the list. The list does not include the books my book group will choose for 2010, and I’m sure I’ll read a review of a new book and decide to read it instead of one on the list. But the list includes all the books I’ve been wanting to read (and many of which I own). Each group also includes a photograph and a quote I liked about each subject.

 

Album (Tinkering Ink), patterned paper (Paper Loft), stickers (SEI)

Clocks (Heidi Swapp), spinner (Tim Holtz), number stickers (from stash), patterned paper (Paper Loft)

I haven’t attached the envelopes to the right-hand page, but may decide to do that later. Patterned paper (Paper Loft), stickers (Frances Meyers), Quote: “Family is the greatest blessing.”

Patterned paper (Paper Loft), stickers (Frances Meyer), Quote: “Friendship is what gets you through the bad times and helps you enjoy the good times”.

Quote:  ” Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”–Charles W. Eliot

Quote: “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Quote: “The heart of blogging is linking . . . linking and commenting. Connecting and communicating-the purpose of the internet.”–George Siemens  

Quote: “A camera is a tool for learning to see without a camera.” –Dorthea Lange

Quote:  “The true are of memory is the art of attention.”

Quote: “Commit to be fit.”

On a different topic, we’ve seen two movies in two days. Highly unusual; I don’t remember the last time we’ve seen two movies in a month. Yesterday we saw Up in the Air with George Clooney. I loved it; the acting was superb, the writing excellent, and there was no trite ending. Today we went with friends to see Sherlock Holmes. It was well-done, but too many violent fights and explosions for my taste. As my friend said, “Hardly your grandmother’s Sherlock Holmes.”  

I finally had time to day to catch up with the Christmas Journal. I had mixed feelings about the 6X6 album, but one clear advantage of it is that I have done a lot more digital and hybrid layouts. With such a small size, doing photo collages is almost a necessity. I have two pages left at the end of the album and am saving one for New Year’s Eve and have two other possibilities for the other one. Getting straight photos of them tonight has proven exceptionally difficult, but here they are (straight IRL for sure!).

 

I altered a journaling card from a digital kit by Cathy Z for the menus. The velvet letters are from American Crafts.  Patterned paper is from Memory Box.

Patterned paper (Memory Box) 

 

I used a part of Ali E’s Believe template for the journaling on the left-hand page. The left column is my journaling from the morning, and the right-hand is journaling I wrote after church on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t feeling much like Christmas in the morning, but by the time we went to bed, it felt just like Christmas. We had a great evening. Patterned paper from Memory Box, circle stamp from Hero Arts, and numbers from SEI.

Hero Arts circle stamp and Making Memories numbers.  

Sunday we had a belated birthday party for my brother-in-law. Ribbon from my stash, circle number from karenika. 

Yesterday I had lunch with four good friends. We had an elegant, long, and leisurely lunch. I decided to take a notepad to each of them, so finished up a few more yesterday morning–just in time.

 

Patterned papers from October Afternoon, Crate Paper, and Cosmos Cricket. Stamps from Papertrey Ink (Take a Note), ribbons from Papertrey Ink and from stash, gems from Amuse (Creative Candy). buttons from a Studio Calico kit and Papertrey Ink.
  

For the last four or five years I’ve made myself a little calendar to keep track of the number of cards and layouts I do each year. I’m always amazed at the end of the year to find out how many cards I’ve made! I don’t complete as many layouts, but they take me quite a bit longer. Nonetheless, it’s gratifying at the end of the year to discover that I did actually get quite a bit done. This year I used all Jillibean papers. I love the graphic grids on one side and the polka-dots on the other. Since the papers are so bright, I kept embellishments to a minimum; pulling out a few paper punches seemed to do the trick. The calendar pages are from a Junkiz Calendar Kitz that I picked up several years ago. The red alphabet is my favorite this year–a puffy alpha by SEI. The number stickers came from Michaels, and the ribbons from my scraps.