Project Life 365 in 2012

I started taking a photo a day at the beginning of the year. I found it online as Project 365, Project Life 2012, and a couple other names. I combined the titles into my own title. It has been fun to take photos of random events, out of the ordinary thoughts, and fun facts. I have had a hard time getting a photo some days with my new job and the darkness of winter. But other days, I get lots of photos. But spring is here and I hope to get out more often now.

The project has been thought provoking because it makes me wonder more about the shots I take. Additionally, I take photos more carefully too. It has encouraged me to get out of my rut driving from home to school and back again. As I drive around town, I see something that would be a great photo but I can't stop to take a picture right then. That's frustrating. But I'll keep that picture idea in my head and later in the week, I'll take to find a way to get the picture. I found myself observing the world around with a different outlook, wondering how the observation could develop into a picture. The project makes me notice things more like the trees that were cut down near the cemetery. The trees were huge and very old and suddenly they were gone. The city had to cut them down before the trees fell down in the next storm due to the disease and bugs within the trees.

Many of my Project's photos are of objects and things as my kids are away at college and I work in a school where I can't take students' photos. I have been photographing cookies and other food. I have found that I need better lighting for my indoor photos. I don't like the glow of the new energy light bulbs or the flash of my point and shoot camera as the flash is too harsh and yet, the flashless option is too yellow.

I also need to find a better way to crop and edit my photos. I thought I was at one time to edit and correct my photos on my computer. But my laptop sends my photos to Paint and I can't edit there as I did on my old computer. I need to ask my geeks in the family to help me find better ways to edit and crop my photos before I upload the photos to Shutterfly or Walgreens, which both of these have editing features.

I look forward to Spring finally arriving here. The spring flowers, the robins hopping around, kids with kites at the park, enjoying the first picnic at the park. Below are a few of my Project Life 365 2012 pictures.

Sunday Breakfast with hubby and hot chocolate

Sunset on the first 50 degree day in February.

Bluejacket Hockey game we went to as Early Valentine's Day date

One of the old trees cut down in front of the cemetery I pass every day to and from work.

Ace dog

McDonald's Shamrock Shake - Yum!!!

"What to Scrapbook?"

I ran into a friend the other day. We hadn't seen each for a while due to new jobs, kids are married or at college, and life in general. She chatted about her new grandchildren and what her kids were up to. I gave updates about my kids and their moves. Then I mentioned that I still scrapbook on Friday nights. She asked what I scrapbook now that the kids were gone from home. I was surprised by the question. Am I to only scrapbook kids, and their sports, dances, and other fun? Another friend quizzed me, asking if I was "caught up" with my scrapbooks. She quilts and her fabric stash is a bit bigger than my paper stash and she is still quilting.

While I don't scrapbook my kids' activities as I once did, I still scrapbook. I scrapbook my trips, our holidays, our fun like the night at the hockey game or the weekend at the State Park. I am sure I'll be scrapbooking for my kids again as they marry and finally have their own kids. But for now, I still scrapbook. I still make cards for my friends and family. I still add to my stash of paper, stamps, ink pads, ribbons, and tools. I still love to be in my scrapbook and cut, glue, glitter, sticker for an hour or 3. My hubby still startles me every time he walks in the scrapbook room because I'm so intent on my creating that I don't hear him come in the room. I love to get my Cricut ans cut shapes and letters for my layouts or projects at school.

I love to scrapbook and can't imagine my life without creating layouts, cards, and other crafty things.

I loved this image from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HOvCZpW293WqXCUwuqVNvG_KBgZ8W2ELWuVe-6Zrkrgq859VQIFDKChWESfmfYUmmfTMypf7nkzHAds4HCvHqg3tN-wCVs3N_RLEKY08cWRSOb6vPB1z-NchS86k2Z4R5Zb3OzCtSlU/s1600/digital+stamp+craft+basket.jpg as it sums my love of scrapbooking.


Happy Scrapping!

Treat Thursdays

I really like to bake. Cookies, cupcakes, breads, cakes. But if I bake it, I eat it all! Oh, my hubby will have a few cookies but not many. On Wednesdays, I bake something good and take it on Thursdays to school for the staff to enjoy. On Treat Thursdays, they have enjoyed my favorite coffeecake - Tennessee Blueberry Coffeecake, a new recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes ( I even made a batch using Splenda, which folks thought were as good as the real sugar recipe), and lots of different cookies. A few staff have missed out on the treats and have lamented that fact. I have learned to bag a few treats in little snack bags for some of the people who get the school in the afternoon. Everyone looks forward so much to Treat Thursdays that I have people asking on Mon or Tues. what the treat will be on Thurs. Sometimes, the treat will be holiday theme such as the green eggs and ham cookies for Dr. Seuss's Birthday/Read Across America or the Pecan Praline Cookies for Mardi Gras day. Sometimes the treat is whatever is in my pantry that I bake something with. I baked sugar cookies from a Costco mix but added a bit more vanilla and some dried orange peel. The staff was impressed with the easy cookies. Some of the recipes are family favorites from my old Betty Crocker Cooky Book and cookbooks on my shelves while other recipes are found online.

The green eggs and ham cookies.

Thick fudgy brownies.

Pecan Praline Cookies

Winnie the Pooh cards

I found a package of Winnie the Pooh die cuts at Joanne's one day. Of course, I used my 40% coupon on it. The package had about 24 die cuts in it. Joanne had other characters such as Charlie Brown and Tinkerbell. I liked the Winnie the Pooh ones the best. They were just so happy looking. I used one or two die cuts per card. Most were used for Birthday cards but a few were missing you cards or thank you cards. I made the Eeyore card sentiment on my computer, using the font Bookworm and colored the font blue. The thank you from the bottom of my heart is a red rubber stamp that I have had for a while so I can't remember where I got it. The hearts were punched out with some scrap paper I had stored away as well as other small pieces like the stripes.

Cool Tools magazine

I bought this magazine Cool Tools for Paper Crafters by Paper Crafts from Hobby Lobby one day. I got out my tools to try out some the techniques in it. I have used many of the techniques as described in the magazine. But, the magazine also inspired me to get out some tools that have been sitting quietly lately.

Images

The past 2 Fridays, I have stamped and embossed images for future cards. Here's some of the images. I am currently doing the Project 365, which is a photo a day. So I did a bunch of stamps with photography as the theme. I did another group the 2nd Friday but didn't take a photo of them.

Martin Luther King Day was a day off at school so I traveled to Springfield, OH to pick up my son. But first I went to Crafts2000, which recently changed its name to Pat Catan's Crafts and Florals. Anyway, I got several things on sale/clearance. I got scalloped square punches for $5 each. They had Martha Stewart Baker's Twine 10 yards (3 colors) for half off so the package was $1.63. I got 4 Cat's Eye ink pads for $1 each and Scrappy Cat ink pads for 63 cents. Mostly embellishments but I did get a pad of 12x12 paper and 4 single sheets.

Casting: Crazy Crafters

This flyer has been popping up on Facebook (Cricut, couple of craft magazines, etc). I could sign up for this. Or my sister!! I wonder who is doing the show and what channel it would be on?? What is the prize?? This could be a fun adventure.

Cards I have been Making in Jan. so far.

Card for Mom's second cousin whose husband recently passed away.

Had a cute school bus sticker and a piece of leftover paper.

More leftover papers and a stickers. I added the cloud stickers because it looked plain without them

Lots of purple cards this time. The ribbon was in Michael's Christmas clearance. 

It is lime green velvety rickrack.

a puzzle page I turned into a kid's birthday card. Added a light touch of glitter glue.

another purple card. Purple is not a color I use a lot but this bunch of cards has a lot of it. More of the velvety rickrack but a teal-y color this time.

I found these cute birdhouse stickers. I had the card done and went back and added the clouds and the stick for the post of the birdhouse. I didn't like it "floating" in air.

more scraps and some jewel flowers

I loved this love bug paper from the Expo and wish I had gotten more of it. Added punched out hearts and the saying cut out by my Cricut (Simply Charmed cart, I believe)

Now I need to get a box shipped OWH. It is full and overflowing but some are Christmas ones I'll need to hold on to till later in the year. I hear PO rates are going up in Jan so I better get the box mailed soon.