Whoa. That went fast.

Wow, how life has changed.

I began this blog with such good intent! Now, I barely have time to go grocery shopping. Or pee alone. I know you veteran mommies are snickering at me- but I swear for some reason I thought I'd be able to sneak in some blogging time. I was wrong.

Those eyes get me every time. 

Fast forward to now. My Little Man is about to turn TWO! He's amazing and crazy and wonderful and typical for a toddler- and I love him now more than ever. I could write a post just on the crazy feelings you go through as a new parent (I still might) but let's just say that we have been into the best "routine" yet and things seem to be more normal. The husband and I have a decent routine amongst eachother and with him and it works well... and he sleeps all night which has made life so much easier. The only trouble is that husband and I basically work opposite shifts, spare 4-5 days a month, so we are both acting as single parents for many nights since we work longer 12 hour shifts. It's hard, but we have plans in motion to change that next year.

Little Man and Mommy around his first birthday
Copyright Lydia L Photography

Mommy's Superhero

And speaking of plans, we're adding another little one to our brood! A Little Lady this time, which means lots of remodeling since our house wasn't quite ready for a second child. I hope to post those photos soon. She'll be here before the end of the year and honestly, I'm not so sure we are ready, but I'm pretty sure you never are.

As a result, the crafts and hobbies I hoped to discuss are on the back burner sadly. The garden is basically non existent right now (Florida heat is too much for this momma). I still scrapbook but only using the phone app for project life, as I finally had to admit defeat. I don't really cook much due to our schedules either. I was doing well with the low carb/keto diet, but then that had to change too. I haven't found a groove yet, work and life is too busy right now- but when I do, I'm blogging the crap out of it!

Our "stay cation" wasn't too shabby!

I love those little (HUGE actually) feet!

This picture makes my heart happy

Happy Family Vacations are very different now, but very awesome.

So for now I'm just posting a few photos from the past year or so. Life is so different and so amazing, and so difficult. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Giving hugs to his sister

Happy living :)

How to Document Your Vacation (the easy way!)

So this is not one of those "come home from vacation with a finished scrapbook" posts. I've done that before, and I can talk about it in a future post if there is interest! However, THIS post is ALL about how I currently document vacations and incorporate them into my project life albums. It's a long one, because I go into lots of type A detail.. so grab a cup of coffee and snuggle in :)

Let me back up here and explain my general organization process...

I am type A so of course everything is chronological. Therefore, all my albums are in order by year and month. This means I DO NOT have separate vacation albums. I used to- and then realized I was wasting a lot of space, money, time.... you get the idea. My theory is that I print my FAVORITE photos from each day, and do one side of a layout per day (or both sides if we did a lot of different things. The photos should remind me of the trip but I don't need them ALL printed.

I repeat, and italicize. I do NOT need to print ALL the photos from one trip. I stress this because it was what held me up in traditional scrapbooking. I wanted every little detail on those pages. I still do, honestly, and can add as many as I want to if I really want to go crazy. But I am learning that, no, I don't need a photo of me and hubby at every "event" during vacation. Sure, I take those photos, but I choose only my favorites. If I take those "detail" types of shots.. hotel room, flip flops by the door, dinner or a nice desert, I will plan on those going in the smaller 3x4 slots and take the photo accordingly. Quality, not quantity, is my focus.

If I REALLY want to make an album just for a vacation or event- I usually go to shutterfly for that. Or if I love all the photos... in the past I've printed all 200 photos and put them in a photo album (remember those). BUT, the memorabilia goes in my project life album- that's what it's for!

Back to the HOW TO:

Okay, so when I start packing for a trip, I make sure I bring a "kit" with me. This usually consists of a pen, journaling cards or index cards, and a large, stiff envelope or two. I cheat and use old photo envelopes from getting 5x7 or 8x10 prints done. You can buy plastic versions of these at walmart (packing and mailing section), or any office store. Heck, you can use one of those padded yellow envelopes or even a page protector and put some cardboard in them to keep them stiff. I prefer, at a minmum, one 8x10 size envelope. This stays in my suitcase and is where I stash all the things I collect during my stay (more on that in a minute). I also bring along a 5x7 size envelope that fits in my purse. This is where I stash those collectibles while out and about, and assures they don't get lost or squished!

My vacation documentation "kit". I like to use hole punched index cards and throw them on a binder ring so they don't get mixed up!

So what do I "collect" in these envelopes?? LOTS of things, but for starters, I have stopped buying t shirts as souvenirs and started buying postcards. They usually are a great representation of where we are staying, always have perfect weather and lighting and never have the random person in them- plus they are SUPER cheap! And FLAT! I also search for patches (you know, like girl scout style) which are great additions as dimension. Occasionally, I'll pick up a key-chain or magnet or bumper sticker, as long as they are thin and lightweight and don't bulk up a page. DO NOT GO CRAZY buying everything you see.. I usually wait until the END of a trip to buy these items so I know what places we've visited. I limit myself to about $15 total for these types of items. 

Here's an example of what I came home with after 5 days in New York. Note- I went WAYYYYYYY overboard! Theres so much to do and see, I tried to take a little bit of something and came home with a whole lot! I will eventually add photos to this, but for now it's just all memorbilia :)

Okay I definitely went WAY over my budget while in New York City for the first time! BUT, I got some great stuff.. Patches, stickers, rubber bracelets, playbills and play tickets!

MAPS! They are great additions to your album, even if they are printed off your computer! We actually had this while roaming the streets so I had some idea of where the places I wanted to visit were in relation to our hotel.

We went to NYC in october, and these leaves were from central park.. I'm shocked they made the trip home, but can thank my envelope system for that! Also on the right you'll notice lots of postcards, maps, guides!

Also, while we are out, I collect all receipts, parking passes, etc. Even armbands for theme parks look great in an album. Maps are always my favorite backgrounds too (and way fun to cut up). If you are going to a city rather than a theme park, make sure to grab one of those "local" magazines with "area guides" and whatnot, they always have a local map in them that's perfect project life size! Oh and always ask the hotel desk for maps (can't beat free!) and make sure to grab anything with their logo on it (I love to grab a few sheets of the notepad paper and an envelope from the rooms if available!). Anytime you do some sort of excursion make sure to grab a brochure, or at the very least, a business card. At restaurants  grab take out menus, napkins, etc. Oh and my FAVORITE souvenir?? Those pressed pennies you see all over the place! Cheap, flat, and kind of cool- just make sure to use a shiny penny :) 

ALL of these should go in your envelope. Mine gets full pretty fast, so I've brought 2 smaller envelopes in the past. It's nice to have one in the car to switch all your stuff into. 

So once the day is over, and we are back in our hotel, I put all of these things into the larger envelope. Like I said, it gets full quickly. If I was more organized, I'd bring one large envelope per event and put them in some sort of binder.. but it's always a last minute thought so I haven't gotten that far :)
Speaking of last minute thoughts, the purpose of the journaling pen and index card/journaling card is to jot down events during the day. I am not good about this, but in theory, you can stash it in your purse and add funny quotes said during the day, favorite places, meals etc. I don't do this, much to my dismay :( The other equally great option is to leave it in the hotel room and fill out an index card each night with whatever you don't want to forget. Again, I don't do this.. I try, I swear, but I'm usually so caught up in the moment I forget until the last night... WHICH I do sometimes use to reflect on the trip and jot down a few things. This has saved me many, many weeks later when trying to remember ALL that we did!

A note on photo taking... don't forget to take photos of signs. Sounds simple, but there's nothing more frustrating then journaling about your favorite restaurant or a really great band you listened to, and NOT remember the name. Also- if you like to document everything, make sure you take a photo of the CLEAN hotel room, before you set anything down! And don't forget to take a few pictures of street signs. Duval St. in Key West, Broadway in NYC and Bourbon St in NOLA are all good examples. You don't always need to be in these pics, but they are fun to cut out later and add to your album. 

Ahh, are you exhausted yet? Trust me when I say all the stuff I just wrote about becomes second nature and it's really not that complicated.

Once you get all your photos printed, the fun begins :) I only had bits and pieces from our July vacation pictured below, but I made it work and most importantly, I made it fit with the rest of the week.  I don't think I need to explain much here, I'll let the photos do all the talking!

So this is just a regular ring bound scrapbook page protector and inside is a sheet of cardstock from the seafoam collection. I did a small amount of journaling and I keep "embellishing" extremely simple.. washi tale and a statement or two.

This is the "other side". I made a small pocket out of more Seafoam Edition card stock and filled it with memorabilia. Note the above left is a postcard from the hotel.

So here is an example of what to do with those sheets of notepad paper! I took a blank journaling card, decorated it with washi tape and journaled a small amount about the whole trip. I could have just written on the paper itself but it was kind of thin so I adhered the card to it. I also added a brochure, map etc.

Vacation fell at the end of my normal week, so you can see I'm still missing photos for that, but you can see the little map with a heart on it.. easy as pie and it was free :)

Again, vacation mixed with "when we got home" pictures for the week. I usually pick one photo to represent each day on the normal layout and then put the rest of my photos in an "insert" which is on the right.

So this insert is photos from just one day. If I had more I probably would have cropped them to 4x4 and used a different page protector, but this worked for me. Any vertical photos do get cropped to 4x4 as you can see above. 

More photos from another day. 

My favorite embelishment is washi tape and a note written on a blank journaling card. Sometimes I don't need the whole 3x4 space and a simple note will do the trick!

My newest, favoritest way of dealing with vertical pictures is to crop them to 4x4 and add a journaling card to the right or left. So simple, but so effective and a good use of those cards!

So I really hope this gives you an idea of what I do. I realize this seems long, but I promise, if you just bring an envelope to toss things into, you'll be light years ahead when it's time to put things in an album! What has worked for you? When your photos finally get printed, do you feel overwhelmed? Comment below!



Happy Crafting!

Got Birthday Cards?

So I finally (after about 6 months) am catching up on my Project Life album. I totally hate using the word "catching up" because it implies that Project Life is hard. It isn't, being pregnant has taken up a lot of my energy and honestly, I was a bit lazy about it!

The BEAUTIFUL thing about project life is that you can work on it in segments. I spent about 20 minutes uploading photos to shutterfly.com (they had their "100 free prints" deal that I can't say no to!). Once they arrived, I got straight to work- which is made easy because Shutterfly actually prints the date the photo was taken (if it's part of the photo properties) on the back of the picture. Super easy! All I did at first was place the photos in their "week", this took about 10 minutes. Then, I sat down and did one layout at a time- I take my time with this part, usually pulling up my calendar to make sure I'm not missing anything when I journal. Each layout takes about 20 minutes. So here's your breakdown:

               20 minutes- upload photos

               10 minutes- place photos in their "week"

               20 minutes- finish layout (corners rounded, title card and journal                                      cards filled out)

SOOOO much better than my previous average of 2 hours per layout, and that would not have included pulling ALL my crap out, taking over my desk, and getting photos printed!

I find it easiest to work backwards.. as in start from last week and just go backwards from there. I still love and use Marcy Penner's planning pages.

Now that I'm back into the swing of things, I have lots of photos printed and in their weeks, but no journaling. I also have things stashed like vacation memoribilia and birthday cards that kept falling out which annoys me like no tomorrow- so I just put them in a cheapie 8x10 page protector until I had a chance to do something with them!

This is what my album looks like post vacation! Everything in one page protector until I get photos printed!

I am actually currently working on those vacation photos- and will dedicate an entire blog post to how I make scrapbooking your vacation easy!

I digress! 

So I also had some birthday cards that kept sliding around the album... which is a big pet peeve of mine. I originally was going to put them in a page protector and get back to them, but then they would be super bulky and annoy me that way (I'm a little type A if you hadn't guessed). So I decided to take the 10 minutes and put them together the way I have done for the past 3 years. Once upon a time I made some youtube videos that explain this concept much better, but I still have terribly slow internet and will have to resort to photos for now :)

SO- I am not a good birthday card/christmas card/valentines day card thrower awayer (no those aren't words but they convey my lack of ability to throw away something so sentimental!). I just can't do it! I love looking back on them, reading the inscriptions or just seeing the handwriting of a signature of those I love. I like the big envelopes Becky has come out with, but you get so much BULK when you just pile those cards in there! So, my solution was to put them onto a single sheet of cardstock in a way you can still read them! I use 8x10 size for just a few cards and 12x12 when I have a bunch.

Here's what I do:

1. Separate the cards into vertical and horizontal cards. In this case I only had one horizontal card. Then I figure out which cards mean the most, and which ones I want to read the front of (the butterfly card was from my husband, so it HAS to go up front!). I separate the vertical cards into two piles, one for the front and the other for the back of the page. 

The verticals are in 2 piles, and the lone horizontal card sits there with a smile :)

2. The next step is hard to describe without video, but I'll try. I try to organize them by size, and choose the largest card for the back. I place it in the top left corner of the page, then glue it down. At this point you just have one adhered card. Next, I place the second card on top of it, and only glue on the first card so that I can still open both cards. I continue this process until all cards are glued to eachother but NOT the cardstock. If you can, put the horizontal card on the cardstock but make sure you don't prevent the cards from opening. Man I hope this isn't as confusing as I think it sounds.

Only adhere the cards to themselves, NOT the cardstock! Then sneak in the horizontal card where it fits.

Horizontal card still opens but is adhered to the cardstock!

Repeat the process on the other side of the cardstock. You could use a second piece of cardstock but we're trying to reduce bulk and it works fine if you just use the back. 

Your result should be a much less bulky collection of cards that you can still open and read the inscriptions. I will occasionally try to embellish, but I prefer to keep it simple- some washi tape and a small title usually work for my taste. Get as creative as you want though :)

The finished product

 

I prefer just one piece of cardstock to reduce bulk. 

The other side is finished. Nice, neat and simple!

So what to do when it's done? Put it into a page protector and call it a day!

No more cards falling out of albums! Yay! Now to finish that week's layout!

So if you are still confused, I'll reference my previously made video, which should clarify it a little better!

Crafty Hobby House- How I Scrapbook My Christmas Cards!

Let me know how this works for you, I love this method and use it pretty regularly. It keeps my albums organized and really doesn't take all that much time. 

Happy Crafting :)