Hello 2013*

 
I can't believe another year has come and gone....

I am finally coming to understand what my dad has been talking about all these years, and am watching time fly faster and faster with each passing year.

2012 has come to an end and I am grateful for another year of blessings, lessons and life lived. That being said, I am so ready for 2013 and have high hopes for this new year. I have so many things I want to accomplish and create.

So, welcome 2013! I toast to you, and welcome you with hopes of an exciting year to come.

Happy New Year everyone!

-S xoxo

What Surprises You?

A lovely soul (Hannah Marcotti) posted this question on her amazing website a few days ago and I have been rolling it around in my brain for the past few days, slowly working it (probably over-thinking it) out:

What Surprises You?

The love that S and N continue to show me, even though they are growing up

How touchy my sensitive heart is on certain subjects...

How close my dad and I have become in the past year.
*this one needs a bit of back story. My dad and I have always been close. I'm his first born and he would do anything for my baby sister and I. We have always known we are so incredibly loved. Our relationship has always been one where he felt the need to protect, almost a stereotypical Father/Daughter relationship. Now while that need is still very much there (and still very much appreciated on my part), this year we have become friends. I have to tell you, he is one of the most delightful people I know. Somehow I won the jackpot, because he truly is amazing...

How much I am enjoying the people I work with

How much hurt I will let myself endure before I finally say enough. 
 ( must work on this...)

How often the friends I have become close to in the past few years say "I Love You"
 (so very grateful for this...)

At how vulnerable (in a good way) and connected I can feel in the company of some ah-mazing women in an e-course that I am taking

How much travel to a new city (or a re-visit to my favorite city) makes me come alive

What surprises you? I'd really love to know...

Wishing you a life full of great surprises

-S

shake me to my core

nyc you shake me to my core
you wake me up, wash the sleep from my eyes
in fact, it feels like you give me a brand new pair.
you challenge me, exhaust me,
thrill and fulfill me...
you are one of a kind

just a few (of many) shots from my recent trip to nyc

make my heart swoon*

 
I have some exciting news to share...

After a cancelled first trip, many months (20 to be exact) of switched dates and every other possible problem, I am finally going back to visit my beloved city.

I will be in New York City (with one of my favorite people) from May 22 to the 28th.

I cannot tell you how excited I am. Excited for the noise, the smells, the food, the culture, everything

New York, you make my heart swoon...

Love,

-S

Link Love 3*

Here are some of my favorite finds this week

* such a sweet voice, and beautiful lyrics. I can listen to this song over and over: Something in the Water

* The Heart Loves What It Loves from peace.love.free

* The new Neapolitan by Dear Lizzy: I scooped up these beautiful papers in large quantities! I especially love the Mason Jars... so cute!

Wishing you a lovely Sunday,

-S xoxo

Project Life: Making It Your Own

I cannot tell you how excited I was to receive my Project Life Core Kit and begin assembling all my memories of everyday life of 2012. I was in awe of how simple it was, and loved that I had everything all ready for me to go. It really was as easy as jotting down memories on the lovely journal cards, printing off pictures and popping them in to the page protectors....

However, after the first couple of weeks I noticed that I wasn't as excited about working on my Project Life Binder, and it wasn't long before I figured out why.

I am a paper and scissors and glue kind of girl. I love, love, love creating and I was missing this "creative" part in my Project Life Binder. I was longing to go back to my old way of Scrapbooking, just because I missed the creation aspect.

So I decided I would continue to use the pre-designed journaling cards (and filler cards) once in a while. There was absolutely no set rule saying I had to use what was given to me in my core kit.

I got out my paper and my scissors and my glue and made my Project Life Binder my own...


This was the missing step for me. I love Project Life and I love that I will have a collection of memories of what my life was like in 2012. Do I regret buying the Core Kit... absolutely not! I gave me a beautiful jumping off point and materials to go back to when my creativity is just not there. But I love to pull out my craft supplies (and believe me I have a lot!) and spending the time to make it my own...

Wishing you a day filled with creativity,

-S xoxo

Link Love*

Just wanted to share a few links to some of my favorite finds this week!

* A message I totally needed to hear this week : Love Your Life

* It's time to start saying Yes: Opening Up, Saying Yes!

* This Photo: So Much Love!!!

* This Website: It's Me, KP . She lives in my favorite city (nyc) and shares my love of scrapbooking... how could I not love her website!

Would love to hear about the websites you're loving right now !

Wishing you tons and tons of found inspiration,

-S xoxo

Project Life: Weeks 5, 6 and 7

This is me, playing catch up again!

I apologize for the many pictures, but I want to make sure this process is documented. So here we go...

Week 5


This week was a lot of fun for me. Really busy, but packed with family time and laughs. Auntie, S and I took a trip out to Cabela's (a hunting/fishing/outdoors store). S had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. Auntie and I enjoyed the fudge shop the most :)



We also had birthday dinner for my little sister K this week. I can't believe she's already 22 (or as she says: this is her first anniversary of her 21st Birthday). We went to the Melting Pot, and once again, had the most fantastic meal. I added an insert specifically for her birthday dinner this week.


On Saturday, K and I went out for lunch to Montanna's. I had the most amazing drink called a S'more ... so sweet, but so delicious. I love the picture in the bottom right corner of K. She is a total goof, so this picture is perfect. We also went out to our favorite country bar to celebrate her birthday (which is actually on Sunday, so it's a part of Week 6 as well!).

Week 6


On Sunday, we were some tired human beings. Most of the day was spent laying around on the couch, and watching tv. In the evening, my mom's side of the family came out to take some family pictures. I still need to fill in a lot of journal in my Project Life Binder. I use a fantastic app on my iPhone called Day One to keep track of what happened each day. It even prompts you to write! Love it!


I've been playing a fun little game lately called "Black Out Poetry" (full blog post on this soon!) and thought I would add a bit of it to my binder. The picture of my steering wheel is to mark a short trip I took to my favorite scrapbooking store to find paper to create my own Project Life Cards (again, full blog post on this soon!). The last picture is a cup of Jasmine Tea I had at dinner with Auntie at our favorite Thai restaurant.

Week 7


It was Valentine's Day this week. Now normally, I am not in to this holiday at all. I find it to be so commercial (and lonely for those of us that are single), but this year was different. I actually really enjoyed myself. I even went to stand in line after work to buy flowers and a balloon for Auntie. I was the only female in the line!


The second Page has a lot of pictures of every day life. The coffee maker, which is my very best friend in the morning. Our bathroom counter, where you can definitely see that our house contains two females - make up and hair products everywhere! We also had Taco Night one night, and the last picture is of my computer screen loading a game I am addicted to on Facebook! Simple things, but things that will be neat to see 20 years down the road!


I also had an insert this week, with my most current Vision Board (another post on this coming too!). On the back are notes regarding each image and what they mean to me and what I am hoping for in my life. I'm choosing to keep these notes private, at least for now :)

Phew, three weeks of catching up. Must learn to keep on top of this project! Even though I'm not on time with each page, I'm glad I'm getting the pages done. I will be back soon with one of the three posts I promised! Wishing you a marvelous weekend!

-S xoxo

Project Life: Week 3 and Week 4

I'm playing catch-up. Life has been so busy in my world ( like non-stop running, can't catch my breath kind of busy) and unfortunately, it hasn't been busy with all positive things.

So I did something for myself this week. I took a day off from work, and shut all my technological devices down. No phone, no computer... just me and my Project Life Binder.

It took me the entire day Friday, and an hour this morning, but I managed to almost catch up.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on this week (Week 5 already!). But first, here are the past two weeks.

Week 3:



This was a very cold week for us. We've been enjoying a very strange winter this year. Normally Alberta is plunged into a deep freeze (-20 to -30 celsius temps) for months. It has been an incredibly mild winter, until this week. With windchills, we were hitting the -40's. So lots of bundling up and staying in. Lots of internet surfing (probably why there are more "found inspiration" spots on my pages than anything else.


I did manage to get out of the house on the weekend to have coffee with my dear friend A at my favorite coffee shop. I always enjoy spending time with her and catching up. I noticed that I tend to take photos of my friend's hands to document an outing with them. Maybe it's because I know that if I lift my phone up to take a picture of their face, some of them will get uncomfortable immediately. Some of them will put on a cheesy grin, the face that everyone thinks they should have in pictures. Maybe it's because I just have a thing for hands...

Week 4:


This was a really tough week for me. I just felt like I was trying not to drown. I couldn't catch up, I couldn't express myself clearly ... tough, tough, tough. So I tried to brighten my days in any way possible (see the images of the coloured cutlery and the pretty new scarf)


I did have quite a few high points too though. My best friend S invited me to come with her on her trip to PEI (hence the suitcases), so I need to start saving travel money! It was also my dear friend R's birthday this week. Since he lives in Vancouver, I couldn't see him on his birthday. I still wanted a way to document this in my PL Binder, so I asked his love to take a snapshot of him on his big day and send it my way. I adore the picture she took. It captures him perfectly. Also, I used a SMASH Pad insert instead of a journaling card to document some of my favorite songs this week.

I also took a quick trip to my favorite scrapbooking store on Saturday morning and snapped a picture of their lovely decor. Saturday evening, A and I went out for dessert and drinks. My cheesecake was far too beautiful not to take a picture of...

Wishing you a lovely weekend and I will be back soon with Week 5!

-S xoxo

Horizontal vs Vertical

I have a very hard time taking horizontal images...

It sounds so silly, but it's so very very true for me! I will take a hundred or so images, and I would be lucky if I remembered to make even one of them horizontal. This is presenting quite a challenge for me in my Project Life Journey.

Now, there are pages that allow for vertical images (thank you Becky Higgins for thinking about us strange beings that only take vertical images!) but i just find that the rest of the kit doesn't work as well with those pages. So I am issuing myself a challenge... Take More Horizontal Photos!

So far, I'm doing well when it comes to taking pictures on my iPhone, but when my DSLR gets in to my hands... still vertical for almost every shot...

oh well, call it a learning curve...

be back soon with both weeks 3 and 4 of my Project Life!

-S xoxo

Project Life: Week 2

Here's a look at Week 2:


One of the highlights of this week was an amazing Birthday Dinner for a good friend at The Melting Pot. I have never had such a wonderful dining experience. It was quite a long one though! We arrived at the restaurant for our 5 pm reservation and didn't leave until 7:45! But we had so much fun fondue-ing! It was incredibly delicious.

The second page includes journaling about the birthday party (top left pocket). In the top right hand corner, I added an image of my favorite author and one of my favorite quotes from her books. I not only wanted to use Project Life as a way of cataloging life, but of cataloging things and people that inspire me right now. In the bottom left hand corner is the box that a bag of bottle caps came in (the only thing that helped me make it through last Monday was sugar...) and in the bottom right is a picture of a clock that I have seen a few times and completely love.

I thought I would give you a quick glimpse of what our kitchen table normally looks like while I'm filling in my project life album (this is also after I've put away the printer!):


I can never manage to keep everything organized when I'm scrapbooking, it's just so much easier to see when it's all spread out :)

-S xoxo

Project Life: Week 1

Well, it's one week in to 2012 already.

I spent my Sunday afternoon filling in my project life album for the past week. It actually took me most of the day ( and I enjoyed every second of it!). I am sure that not every week will take me this long, but there was just so much that I wanted to document!

I also added an insert for an event that I attended for New Years. I haven't added journaling to that page quite yet, but I should have it done this evening.

Here's a look at the pages:
My first page was all about cooking. One of my intentions this year is to cook more meals, instead of just throwing quick things together. I really do enjoy cooking, and am so lucky that I live with someone who doesn't mind being my guinea pig ;)
The next two pages (a 12x10 insert from American Crafts) was all about this amazing event I attended over New Year's called Intention Alberta. So much love and joy packed in to two amazing days!
I also signed up for Ali Edwards' class called One Little Word and booked our hostel for our trip to New York City in May! Such a busy week!

-S xoxo

Hello Life 2012*

I can't believe we are in to 2012 already. Time just keeps flying by, and I am finding that the older I get, the quicker it goes!

I hope everyone had a marvelous new year, I know I sure did. In fact, I can honestly say that it was the best in my memory (I'm hoping to do a full blog post about it soon, but I can't promise anything...)

I wanted to share with you a new project I am embarking on for 2012.

It's called Project Life and I am so excited to be taking part in the journey this year.

I first heard about/saw this project on Ali Edwards' Project Blog (this is one of the many projects she does, she is truly phenomenal and you could spend days ooohing and aaahhing over her many projects. In fact, I highly recommend that you do!).

I fell in love with the project and ordered my kit. I am using the Amber Core Kit, but am thinking I will also order the Clementine Core Kit as well! I will also design some of my own cards, using the blank journaling cards, like you can see in the picture below.

I am hoping to keep up to date with this project, as I would really like to have a running record of this year (and years to come). In order to make this task a little less daunting, I've decided to take the week by week approach, not a photo a day. Some days there will be more than 1 photo, some days there will be no photos. You can find out more information on Becky Higgins' website, as she has some great videos about project life.

If you are taking the Project Life Journey in 2012, please leave a comment below! I love seeing the many different versions of this wonderful product.

Happy New Year and All the Best in 2012!

-S xoxo

Welcome, Christmas*

Good Morning Lovelies,

I woke up this morning so excited for today. As many of you know, I am so very in love with Christmas, it is absolutely my favorite holiday. Not for the presents, or the food, but for the kindness that seems to radiate from everyone around this time of year. We all seem to be more tolerant, more willing to help others, and just softer versions of our normal everyday selves. There just seems to be a little more love out there...

We are taking our first step towards prepping our home for Christmas. Today is the day we put up our Christmas Tree :) There will definitely be a post full of pictures coming soon! You'll also notice that I've changed the look of my blog for Christmas as well.

Something else I wanted to share was a video of the base pages of my December Daily 2011! I am so excited to finally be doing this project instead of thinking about doing it and just never getting around to it! Of course now that I've created the base pages, I keep seeing different people's versions of the December Daily Album, and want to change mine... but I will stick with what I have this year, and change it up for next year ( no post album next year, MUST be in a binder! Way easier to add and remove things!) I would love to see your December Daily projects! If you are sharing them on your blog, or anywhere else on the web, please leave a link in the comments! Now on to the video...

As you can see, I couldn't decide on one "style" of paper. I started out with all "vintage Christmas" and the added some pages that are a little more contemporary. What can I say, I'm an eclectic type of girl and all my projects seem to reflect that. I plan to fill this little book with Christmas memories and stories. If you follow this link, you will find a list of 25 ideas for your December Daily Album, created by Ali Edwards herself.

I will definitely be using it as a reference when filling in my album!

I will be back in the next few days to share images of our Christmas tree.

Wishing you all a day filled with love,

-S xoxo

Our First Winter's Night

"the lamp is burning low upon my table top,

the snow is softly falling.
the air is still in the silence of my room,
I hear your voice softly calling..."
-Song for a Winter's Night

I woke up at 1 am this morning and I could just feel it. I was so sure of what I would see when i peeked out my bedroom window. there it was... snow

instead of grumbling to myself, flipping over and falling back to sleep, I got up. I made myself a cup of earl grey tea (decaf of course) and bundled up in my blanket. I pulled the curtains in my bedroom wide open and just watched...

the first snowfall always seems so magical to me. to watch the beautiful fluffy white snow cover every surface it can find in sparkling white diamonds...

I know in the months ahead, I will grumble about how tired I am of snow and how much I long for green. but for now I am marveling in the beauty of our first winter's night

Slowing Down

I can feel it, the energy of fall...
it is a much slower energy and i am glad it is finally sinking in. Our fall has been so strange this year, with temperatures hitting almost 30 degrees (c) in late September. Yet all the leaves have been showing off their beautiful colors since late August.

I feel most myself in Autumn, when i can curl up in cozy sweaters and lovely scarves. I can feel my hibernation tendencies start to take over. I become quite a bit of a homebody in the late fall/winter, and I welcome that time. Creativity takes over, and I spend my nights working in my journals, scrap booking images, and filling my creative spirit.

I also know that with the end of Autumn, we get closer and closer to my favorite time of year, Christmas. I start preparing to enjoy that time as well.

So welcome fall, I'm so happy you've finally arrived...

Celebrating Love and Friendship*

today was a first for me.

the first time I shot portraits for a couple. Not just any old portraits though, engagement photos...

I was so nervous, and have been nervous for about a week.

I was talking to one of my close girlfriends about my nerves. I'm one of those people that needs to talk through everything. Once I get my fears out in the open, I can usually talk myself down. But for some reason I couldn't shake these nerves.

What if I screw these up? They're someone's Engagement Photos for crying out loud, maybe I'm not ready for this...

This has been my inner dialogue for the past week, and it was loud and clear this morning as I drove to meet the couple.

I've been friends with L for over 15 years, and I think she knew exactly what I was thinking as soon as she opened her front door. But instead of asking me what was wrong or trying to make me relax, she just said that she was excited to get some fun pictures. As soon as she said the word fun, my heart slowed down. She had no high expectations set, or at least none that she told me about. We were just going to hang out, and I was just taking some pictures of two close friends who happened to be in love and getting married next fall...

We drove out to our location, chatting happily about nothing in particular. D kept reaching over and holding L's hand as he drove. I started to notice how they looked at each other and started to get excited about photographing one of my best friends and the man she loves. Once the camera was in my hands and I snapped the first picture, my love of capturing moments took over and the nerves went away completely.

We had a wonderful day together celebrating love and long lasting friendship. I couldn't have asked for a better couple to take engagement photos of...

Wishing you all a Sunday filled with love

xoxo

-S

How I've Been Spending My Days*

I have a confession to make...

the reason i haven't been writing this blog lately is that i have been surrounded by paper, glue, photos, buttons, glitter, twine and all sorts of other embellishments...

my name is S, and I am a papercrafter...

I've been so busy making glorious crafty messes, that I've neglected this little space. so I thought I would come back and share some of the treasures I found today on my adventure to a scrapbook store in my city.

I'm sure most papercrafters and art-makers have heard of Ali Edwards and her fabulous December Daily Project. If not, check out the links and i can almost guarantee that you will want to make one! I've wanted to make one for the past couple of years, but just haven't gotten everything together, and of course by the time I wanted to begin, there was no Christmas paper that I loved left! So this year, I am proud to say that it is October 1st and I have purchased the paper for my December Daily Project!


I love the colours and the classic Christmas feel to this paper. There were several different papers, with completely different looks that I liked and I had a really hard time choosing between them, but traditional/vintage won in the end :)

I will be honest though, paper for my December Daily Project was not what I went looking for today. I was browsing the web, and came across a new journal that I fell head over heals with. Imagine my delight when I find out, it's not just one journal, but an entire line of products! If you love to journals, take a look at K&Company's SMASH journal . I'm excited to start pasting bits of my life into this neat little book.


Hoping your weekend is filled with all the fun things you like to do, cause with my new paper and journal, i know mine will be ...

xoxo

-S

Goodbye 26*

my 26th year has felt a lot like these flowers.
pretty, unique, waiting to bloom...

this year has been all about learning:

learning what works for me and what doesn't, learning what i need to let go of and what i need to hold on to with all of my might.

I spent the last few hours of 26 with a few girls from work, who over the past year have become a group of my closest girlfriends. As we were sitting at a table at one of my favorite restaurants, laughing and talking, I heard my heart whisper "more of this please"

So here is hoping the next year is filled with laughter, kind gestures and love.

lots and lots of love...

xoxo

Link Love*

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet.

there is something about being a few short clicks away from amazing photos, insightful blog posts and hilarious videos that makes me incredibly happy.

so I've decided to start a collection of my weekly favorites right here...

You Are Not Alone. Not By A Long Shot

It's The Reason You Are Here On Earth

The Word of The Day

On Manifesting and Introvert~ness


Wishing you all a lovely Sunday full of inspiration and discovery xoxo