Getting Caught Up: December Daily 2015

Happy Thursday Dearest Dreamers!

I hope this finds you well!

Now that October is finished and I have finished filming my October Daily flip though videos, it's time to move onto my next project. It was definitely an experience working on my October Daily, a good experience though. I think that it helped that Lee was so interested in what I was doing. Either way, working on this project definitely helped renew my love of pocket scrapbooking.

This is the cover of my 2015 album.
I chose a standard TN and covered it with scrapbook paper and wash tape.

For a long time ever since the end of 2014, I have been more focused on memory keeping in travelers notebooks because they offer more space for journaling then pocket scrapbooking does. I've always been more of a writer then anything else, which I think is why I struggled so much with pocket scrapbooking in the beginning. But we'll get to how I'm overcoming that one in a minute.

This happens to be my favorite page, and probably something that I will repeat this year if possible!

Last year I decided to attempt December Daily in a travelers notebook, like I did with my October Daily two months before. Since I was leaving Germany right before December started, I made sure to pack up stuff that I would need in my suitcase before I left because my boxes weren't coming until January. There was a nice lady from the December Daily group on Facebook who sent me some stuff from last year's December Daily kit. I was incredibly motivated to start the project, but didn't really have a lot of room to work on it. There was a lot of traveling from North Carolina to Florida and Georgia during the month of December which also didn't help all that much towards working on my album. I got all the way to the 14th of December before I fell off the DD wagon. I have my pictures all printed and my list of activities written in my planner, but nothing is happening in my album.

I decided to take Ali's Storytelling With December Daily class again this year and it really got me thinking. It really makes me want to go back and work on my album from last year, in hopes that I can get it done before February of next year. I'm not quite sure why I just stopped working on my album, other then I guess life just got in the way and then we moved into the house we live in currently. It's not like I don't have anything to work with, I printed the pictures and wrote all the notes in my planner, it's just sitting down to actually work on it. I actually started working on it Friday night while Lee was practicing on his drums because I had lost interest in the internet.

Pro's of a TN: 

* Not nearly as big so it's easier to carry, which then limits your supplies

* it limits you on how bulky you make your embellishments, 

* focus on journaling, 

* you can use any size picture you want because you aren't worrying about the size of your pockets as long as it fits in your TN (and you can use vertical 4X6's, which is harder to do in a 6X8 mini album)

Con's: 

* You're limited on your embellishments in some ways, 

* It limits the products that you use in some ways

* Potential bleed through of your pens or ink

* You have to worry about writing on the backs of your pages

* If you fall behind it takes forever to get caught up

* You have to work on your pages in order, you can't skip days and go back to them. 

Something that I learned from her class this year is the beauty of mixing long and short stories in my album (which I already knew), but being able to print my stories on my pictures and print them from home. Also being able to use the digital stamps as well as trying new things with my Silhouette cutting machine. It will be easier to add things into my album that make it bulky because I don't have to worry about writing on the back of the page for my stories like I did in my TN (a big issue of mine, especially when the album gets bigger and bigger).

Like I said, I am hoping to work and and maybe even finish this album soon. It's already time to start prepping my 2016 album, which I will be doing in a pocket style like Ali and so many others do. I will record a final flip through video of last years for those of you that are interested.

Here's to hoping that I can finish two albums before February of next year!

"I Love" Sunday's v.20

Hello friends and happy Sunday! I hope this post finds you well. 

My goal for this series is kind of to share what I am loving about the previous week. I use it as a tool to help me remember what happened each week as well as what I want to document in my PL album. Please feel free to play along (doesn't have to be on a Sunday) and share a link to a post about something (or a list) of what you're loving this week?

** CreativeLive's class: Scrapbooking with Project Life with Becky Higgins: This is NOT a new class. This class is actually from 2013! But I noticed on Friday on Twitter, that they were streaming the class live for everyone to enjoy. I LOVE CreativeLive classes! They are super informative and I love hearing from a professional in a specific field, about a specific topic. The best part of this class.... it's taught by the woman who created Project Life! The first day is just basics of the system, how it was created, the different products, and things like that. Day 2 is spent on integrating technology into Project Life with the help of several special guests, different ideas for mini albums, and odd sized photos. Day 3 is all about the photo's with tips, journaling your stories, and social media and Project Life! I've learned quite a lot about Project Life... I've made plans and notes about what I want to do... and most importantly, I am feeling pretty motivated to actually get something done. Be on the lookout for a Project Life centered post based on this class and my thoughts about it all! Do you do Project Life or traditional scrapbooking? Let's talk about it! Drop me a line here, through email, or on Facebook so we can talk about it!!!

** Day 3 of a 4 day weekend. Which is good, since like I mentioned Friday, Mo had surgery on the day before on his ankle. He came home Thursday afternoon and his roommate hung out with him until I got there. I managed to switch my shift with a coworker since I was supposed to work until 9 p.m. (and there was NO way I was driving 2.5 hours after working ALL day and into the night) who is my hero and I got to leave at 4 p.m. instead. I had to take him to two doctor's appointments for his ankle on Friday and then we picked up food for the weekend. Yesterday we went on a quick shopping trip for more gauze so he can actually take a full bath and not get the stitches or wound wet, and then we just hung out at the apartment all day. We made breakfast together, which is always kind of a must for us. I'm trying to be more helpful to him this weekend just by doing simple stuff for him because even though he isn't on pain medicine right now, it's still hard for him to walk. Tomorrow I have to take him to work since he can't drive yet and then to another appointment for his ankle in the afternoon. Usually, in the military, when you have ANY kind of surgery... you get a couple of days off (even tooth removal) but he is expected to go back to work on Monday, which kind of irritates me. He can't wear his boots, so he's either going in his "soft shoes" (running shoes) or in his civilian slacks and AFN polo shirt. 

** Mo took his little Monster Mo to work. He even let him talk on the mic. I made this little crochet monster for the upcoming Relay for Life in my community. I plan on making them in various colors and sizes to help raise money for my Relay for Life team. If you would like to donate to Relay for Life or purchase anything from me, please drop me an email and we can work out specifics!

** 30 Days of Lists began: So technically, it began on the first, and I believe that was last Sunday... but whatever! I am pretty stoked! I decided to incorporate this round of 30 Days of Lists into my self-PL album and have been writing the lists out and placing them in the album. I have to remember to take pictures sometimes, but I think that will come with a Self-PL album post at a later date (there are so many post ideas running around in my head that I went and bought a new notebook so I can write them all down). I just love this project because I love making lists and being creative.

** I only work 3 days this week. This weekend that is coming to a close was a 4 day weekend imposed solely by my Team Commander since when we're in rotation we don't get a lot of time off (other then 1 day each week). Next month starts rotation mania, so this year he is trying to give us as much time off as possible. We're supposed to be enjoying traveling around Germany and other European countries while we here, but last year our work schedule was SO hectic, that Mo and I didn't do ANY traveling... we barely left the apartment on days off. This year we're hoping to change that, especially since Mo PCS's to Hawaii at the end of the year. We got goals and plans! ANYWAY, next weekend is a training holiday 4 Day made mandatory by the commander of Europe training forces. It's their way to ensure families have time to travel while being stationed in Europe. AS I said though, last year, my section of my team didn't get this time off.... now we do. And it's AWESOME! Friday is Mo's birthday and our whole plan is just to hang out, go eat dinner at our favorite Irish pub, and spend time together (especially because he won't be fully healed from this surgery by then).

.: Little Loves:.

|| Miyo Water | Samoas | Cooking with Mo | Extra time off with Mo | making lists and plans | Getting organized | Being inspired by creators | Social Media connections ||

What are you loving about last week?

"I Love" Sunday's v.11

Hello dear friends and Happy Sunday!

This is the first "I Love" Sunday post of 2015! Woohoo!!!!

1. I LOVE having this time off! I have just been hanging out and relaxing. I've done a little bit of shopping that I needed that I can't get in Germany. Got some new Project Life stuff, new crafting materials in general. I am pretty excited for the plans that I have for 2015.

2. Almost complete with 2014's December Daily album. Just got a few more pictures to have printed and a few more cards to be added and then I will have blog posts.

3. Got some new craft plans that I can't wait to create! Going to print pictures from my deployment to document that story, start a 2015 PL album documenting the special moments in our lives, document this Christmas trip, among other things.

4. Watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies yesterday and the movie was pretty awesome. It was constant action from the get go and started right where the other one left off. I just wish that I had watched the other two before I went and saw this one because it would be cool to see the story from start to finish.

5. I grew up listening to country music as a child and didn't listen to anything else until I was 10 and moved from Texas to St. Pete, Fl where I was introduced to Rock music. I am definitely NOT a fan of most pop music, but I have recently found some metal covers of pop songs that I really enjoy. Here is I Prevail's cover of Taylor Swift's Blank Space and Any Given Day's cover of Rhianna's Diamonds, which happen to be two of my favorite covers.

** Scrapbooking Loves **

|| Cheers, Jess 2015 Project Life Plans | A Cool Sister Gift Idea from A Beautiful Mess | 10 Reasons to Give Scrapbooking A Chance by A Beautiful Mess | Ali Edwards' 25 Ideas and Story Inspiration |
Karen Andersen's 3 post series on her December Daily ||

** Little Loves **

|| Cookies | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Convenience of American stores | Blog & Photography friends | My new camera bag | New friends | Mountain Dew Voltage || 

What are you loving this past week?

Shank Mini Album

Yes, that starts with Shank....

As some people know, everyone who reads more then one post of mine should know this by now, I am an Air Traffic Controller with the US Army, and have been since July of 2010. After I graduated Army school (after basic) I was sent to an aviation unit in Fort Bragg, NC in 2011 and deployed to Afghanistan in September 2011 to a small place called Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank. Yes.... they named a military base in Afghanistan after a tool used in prison to kill people.... that gave us warm and fuzzy feelings when we found that out....

I spent a year at FOB Shank and it was both one of the best and worst experiences of my life. I learned a lot during that year there, it was definitely interesting. Shank was affectionally dubbed Mortar city because we had the most Indirect fire out of the entire brigade the entire time we were deployed with over 250 attacks that year (not counting individual rounds). Fireworks aren't much fun for me anymore and I am sure I have at least a slight case of PTSD from that year, but that is really neither here nor there.

About the middle of 2014 I made the decision to start Project Life and scrapbooking for serious.  I have accumulated a BUTT TON of pictures over the years, and my deployment is no exception to that. I was looking through my picture albums on my computer and it occurred to me last week that I could make a mini album of my deployment. I want to remember more of the cool memories from that year, the things I learned, and the accomplishments I made while I was there.

I bought this mini binder from Target from the Home Office section because I loved the pattern and I just had to punch holes in the page protectors to properly fit the album.

I got most of the pictures printed at CVS because I still don't have a picture printer (although Mo and I did find a good Canon printer at Target for $100 that we're thinking about buying once we get back to Germany).

I rounded the corners of the pictures with an 1/2" edge trimmer I bought from Target (I've gotten a lot of stuff there this trip and the one near where Mo lives is better then the Walmart in his neighborhood too). I then organized them in chronological order as best as I found (I need to check the metadata on the photos to be sure) and put them in sheet protectors and then into the binder.

I have to wait until I get back to Germany to put the Project Life cards into place to tell some of the stories since I only brought Christmas themed ones with me to finish December Daily. I also have to reorder some of the pictures because they messed up some of the pictures.

What do you think?