Adventure

I LOVE to travel and look forward to each and every trip.  The only thing I dread is waiting to see who will be sitting in the middle seat.  This time, my middle seat neighbor was the worst one yet.  By the time I got off the plane I felt like I should spray myself down with Lysol.

This week I'm visiting my sister and her family.  I really came to visit my nephew :)  My sister said we will do some things, but I'm content to sit around and play with him.  On our last trip, hubby and I did a ton of sightseeing so I'm good.  Who wouldn't love to hang out with this cutie?!

OLW - January Part I

I joined in on Ali Edwards' One Little Word project.  People approach this in many different ways, but the premise is to focus on a word you select and explore it over the year.

My word chose me towards the end of last year and while I have been finding ways to include it in my life, I haven't worked on the physical project much.  I sat down this weekend and decided to get January done. The journaling is always the hardest for me because I feel like I'm doing it wrong or I won't remember to include everything.

My word for the year is BALANCE.  I used the layout that Ali did and approached the first part of the prompts on what this word means to me, why this is my word, and ways to invite it in.  While some of the journaling is personal, I also believe in sharing it because it may speak to someone else.

The prompts are included in January's theme.  The photo is one that I took on New Years Eve.  That night I was excited for what the new year has in store and starting with a clean slate.  The vellum piece is one that I've had on hand.  The chipboard piece is from Ali's Tough Story Kit.  

The Fresh Start is from Ali's Firsts kit and fit perfectly.  I know you can see the other side of the chipboard piece, but I feel like it's a nice outline.

I will have the second half of the January prompts later this week.

Organization

In one of my photos for WITL, I have clothes all over the bed and floor.  Now, I will say that when it comes to my stuff, I like to be organized.  Growing up, my room, drawers, and closet were color coded and organized.  The problem now is that I have to share my dresser and closet with hubby.  And he, somehow, has more clothes than I do.  Yet, he wears a fraction because he has a uniform for work.  Anyway, as much as I would love to empty his side out, I know that is not how to do things lol.

I love scarves and have tons of them.  I found two scarf holders, but seeing how bulky they are, they take up a good amount of my small closet area.  Today, I bought a hook for the back on my closet where my scarves now rest.  This has freed up closet space and hoping that I can get my clothes hung up and on my two new packs of hangers I also bought today.  

I'm sure that I can free up more space if I cleaned out my clothes, but let's save that for another day.......

WITL ~ Saturday Pages

So I survived and completed my album!!  I am so excited and never thought I would actually get it all done.

I am rarely up before anyone on a Saturday.  Especially a Saturday where we don't have to go anywhere.  I thought my opening photo was a good perspective of what the stairs look like now.

I love how clean my house looks when looking up from my couch.

Our Saturday was mostly filled with errands that hubby and I got to do alone.  It also included a trip to get Lillian some clothes.  And let's just say that shopping right now is not fun.

I had more than normal journaling so it was a squeeze to get all on the card.

Hubby took the kids to a cook-out and I got to nap for 4 hours!!  I think my body was still trying to recover from all my late night college hours.  I use Ali's Read Story kit for my book page.

I had more photos than normal so I just glued them back to back and added them in.  My last photo for the day was of the Read kit.  It's my first story kit that I ordered.  

I don't know if I will added anything to the last page.  I kind of want to add some journaling of what I learned and how I hope to look back and smile on this week.  I'm still waiting for some inspiration before I do that.

WITL ~ Friday Pages

Hubby and I both had the day off so we did a lot more togetherness than we usually get to do.

I had to be a little discreet about my photo taking today.  Again, I used washi on my daily divider and paint/glitter on the #6.

When we can, we have a date on a Friday.  I use to be home and we would spend this day together.  And it was great when the kids went to school because we would go to the movies or Tucson and not pay for a sitter.  When I started working, we lost that time together.  This past school year I was lucky to end up with a job that was more flexible to work on my degree.  Since I was done with college for the semester, we finally got to have a day for us.  And we took that morning to enjoy breakfast and then just relax at home for a bit.

We didn't get the whole day together because our daughter had an end of year party at the park.  We took food to them and hung out.  We don't mind doing it and since hubby and I are both so active in her school, her friends and teachers enjoy us being there.  The one photo of Victoria and her friend is one of my favorites from the day.  They enjoy being together and it just shows how Victoria came out of her shell this year.  It's also special because we just found out her friend will be moving and they won't go to high school together in the fall.

I'm not a fan of taking photos of myself, but trying to do include more.  

I love this last photo for today.  My friend is having a really rough time in her life right now.  She hosted an end of 8th grade party and just had a great time.  She was laughing and enjoying her friends and family.  It was so great to see her happy!

WITL ~ Thursday Pages

Thursday was kind of low for me in photos.  It just felt weird.  I used the washi tape and number 5 for the divider.  

On the back I wrote what we did of the day.  It was a short day for work so we didn't have a lot going on.  I put the T onto the bottom photo.  Seemed to fit there the best.

I'm not thrilled about the silver pen on the bottom photo, but it will have to do for now.

I was able to pull some photos from the girls' phones I need to remember this more often.  It's nice to see life from their perspective.  

WITL ~ Wednesday Pages

After a few trips back and forth to the store, I finally have the rest of my photos to finish out the week.

I added a bit of journaling onto this photo.  For some reason, it kept getting cropped off when I sent it for printing even though I had it in 6x8 size.  Again the divider has washi tape and the 4 has paint and glitter.  I don't think I'll be using glitter for awhile as there are little bits that fall off and get on my pages.

I added some journaling to the plate and stamped onto the photo.  I'm debating if it needs more, but for now it's good.

I cut out the conversations from one of the cards from Ali's WITL kit.  It was the perfect fit for my book club dinner conversation.  The bottom photo has some journaling, though I may go back and reprint the photo in black and white.  The bad lighting is driving me nuts.  I used all my pockets, so I added the small card from the kit as a separate piece and stamped it and added the hello circle.

I used Ali's Reading Story Stamp as the perfect extra journaling for my monthly book club. I'm working on using items because I have a bad habit of hoarding.  I added some stickers from the WITL kit.  

I couldn't decide where to put the W so it fit in that small area of my photos.  I used the tiny attacher to staple it to the pages.

The back of the Wednesday card has typed journaling.  And my lovely 6x8 photo to close the day.  I didn't find a good extra piece for it, so it sits for now.