30 Lists: Lists 8-12

I have been a little bit behind in my #30lists. Not only have I been behind in just writing them, but I've been behind in posting completed lists on Instagram! So, instead of just not posting my lists since I'm "behind," I'll just post what I have. That's something I'm trying to get better about:  sharing what I have, even if it's not complete or what I intended to share.

So, you guys will see my lists when I have them done! I've been really busy because of some life changes (which I will share soon). So, bare with me as I'm adjusting to a new pace of life.

Enough about stuff I'm not sharing yet! Here are the lists I have at least photographed...

List Eight:  Books Everyone Should Read

-The Coming Plague:  Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett
-Brave New World by Aldous Hexley
-The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
-Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
-Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
-The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

List Nine:  Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

-DRAMA
-unkind people
-people who don't invest in your relationship
-ignorance
-inconsiderate parking
-poor grammar (yes, I recognize the irony)

List Ten:  Subjects I Can Talk About For Hours

-PREVENTION/PUBLIC HEALTH
*specifically
--women's reproductive rights
--sexual health
--infectious diseases
--HIV/AIDS
-MEMORY LANE
*especially
--childhood with my siblings
--freshman and senior years at UIUC
-PLANNERS

List Eleven:  Things I've Finished (So Far) This Year 

I'm going to take this from a "what I've done so far this year..."
-put the house on the market!!
-made more mini albums than usual
-cleaned out, RAKed, donated a lot of my scrap supplies
-finished listening to the Harry Potter series on audio book
-read at least 13 books

List Twelve:  Must Haves For A Night In

 

-a GREAT book, binge-worthy TV show, or a few must-see movies

-wine! I prefer white, but am slowly falling in love with red

- snacks:  cheese, chocolate, popcorn, etc.

-candles

-Illinois sweatpants that I've had since freshman year of college

-nice, warm, cozy blanket

 Are you participating in #30lists? If you are, I'd love to see your lists! Leave your blog (if you post them) or your Instagram/Twitter below!

xoxo,

Heather

30 Days of Lists: Week One

I know you all know by now that I AM A LISTER! Any kind of list, I'll write it. Naturally, I just had to participate in yet, another round of #30lists.

I completed my first challenge in March 2013. I made a mini album for the challenge. I completed every list except for two or three. In March 2014, I again made a pretty kick ass mini album. Although, I only wrote a handful of lists in it. I know, somewhere, I have the rest of the lists on sticky notes or Project Life cards. Someday I plan to transfer those "drafts" to the album.

This time around, I am determined to write my lists DIRECTLY in my album EACH day. I made my album really simple. I'm not even going to embellish beyond what's already done. If I had planed to do that, I wouldn't post photos of the lists until it was done, and then I wouldn't write the lists in the album because I wouldn't have time to embellish, so on and so forth. This time, it will be different!

After each week, I will be posting my completed #30lists. 

List One:  Today is brought to you by...

-a work holiday
-Earl Grey
-Criminal Minds binge watching
-couch sitting
-planning
-a little bit of cleaning...

List Two: I can't pass up...

-anything pumpkin in the fall
-coffee in the morning (or any time of day)
-dessert or candy
-pretty paper
-a date with a friend
-a hug from my husband
-a new book
-a trip to the craft store

List Three:  If I had an extra hour in the day

I would use that time just for me, doing whatever my little heart desired! It would be an hour of not doing chores or worrying about adult stuff.
...and...
I'd wish for more hours in the day!

List Four:  Projects to finish this month

-setting up my blog planner
-August Project Life
-Mal's Scotland mini album
-United Way donation basket
*I think that's ambitious enough
-organize papers (apparently not done being ambitious!)

List Five:  Things to nurture this month

-my marriage
-me: body, mind, and soul
-my Etsy shop

List Six:  Every night before I go to bed

*how appropriate that I'm writing this in bed...

-tell my husband goodnight, "I love you" --ALWAYS
-wash face
-think of something I am grateful for 
-set my alarm
-sometimes read a book
-fall asleep with the TV on, usually Netflix
-cuddle with Willie

List Seven:  Chores I actually enjoy

-laundry (not the putting away part though)
-dishes because it's a mindless task and allows me to daydream
-vacuuming
-I also enjoy chores/cleaning in general when I'm in the mood to do those things

Week One is complete! Make sure to follow me on Instagram (@hsweet12) to see daily #30lists. I post my list every night. If you're playing along with #30lists, please comment below with your blog (if you're posting on your blog) or your Instagram name. I love seeing fellow listers!

Also, check out my Flickr album for pages from my album as well as my completed lists.

Enjoy your Monday,

Heather

Mini Album Mayhem: Thirty Days of Lists Album

I am a lister. Like, to the extreme.

As I mentioned in a previous Love For the Weekend post, I registered to participate in the 30 Days of Lists challenge coming up in September. This will be my third challenge. Although, this will be my first go around sharing my lists in entirety. At least I hope. This past March, I shared my last-minute album and even a handful of lists on Instagram, but that was it. This go around, I'm determined to share throughout the whole month!

I knew I wanted to use my stash to construct my album. I didn't want to buy anything, even though I really wanted to. Using my limited supplies (as most of my supplies are packed away because our house is still on the market-ugh), I went through all my patterned paper and picked out my favorites.

I didn't worry too much about the color combinations, although, I did a pretty good job at coordinating most of the papers. 

A couple things I knew I wanted with this album:

• 4" x 6" size
• my favorite patterned papers
• Project Life cards, especially some of the new Heidi Swapp collections
• these lovely scripted die cut numbers
• These numbers were a set of free files I found on this blog. I love them!
• kraft cardstock
• at least one envelope (because I'm obsessed!)

And to help hold myself accountable to actually fill out the lists each day, I already printed the list of prompts. I printed the prompts on kraft cardstock, which I will cut into strips. I'll adhere each respective prompt strip on the same page as the die cut numbers. I obviously did not do that in these photos as a way to keep the prompts secret for those people that either like the surprise of the daily prompt or haven't registered for this awesome challenge (which you definitely should!). 

My plan is to post each list daily on my Instagram account using the hashtag #30lists. Follow me @hsweet12. I also plan to do a weekly roundup post of my lists throughout the month of September. 

If you're interested in seeing more photos of my album, check out my Flickr album here. I'll also be adding my completed lists to this album throughout September.

So, are you guys participating in this challenge? Link me up below to how you're playing along with #30lists!

xoxo,

Heather

MINI ALBUM MAYHAM: Baby Boy Album

**Warning: This post is photo heavy!**

Boy (no pun intended!), do I have lots of mini album inspiration for you all today! I have absolutely fallen in love with mini albums. I used to think of them as extremely intimidating. That feeling hasn't gone away completely, but they have become more fun and less overwhelming. This could be because I've actually created 3-5 mini albums this year already.

Anyways, I wanted to show off this very special mini album that's close to my heart. One of my best friends recently gave birth to her first child, a beautiful baby boy. From the moment she told me she was pregnant way back in early December 2013, I knew I wanted to make a special mini album for her to document her baby's first year.

It took a lot of restraint not to buy everything baby in between the announcement of her pregnancy and the announcement of the sex of the baby. I was itching to start creating, but having to wait to hear whether she was having a boy or girl was driving me nuts! I can't imagine the anxiety her and her husband felt waiting for that day...

As soon as I found out, I bought just a few things. And I actually mean that! I definitely could have purchased more, but, for me and my impulse scrapbook buying habits, I did relatively good. But before I list out the supplies I purchased, I'll break down my thought process and how I approached this very daunting task. (Well, I'll break it down to the best of my ability.)

I knew from the beginning I wanted a 6" x 8" D-ring binder with pocket pages as my album base. I wanted to use journaling cards. I thought these would be the easiest way for my friend to document, quickly, her son's first year.

Then came the hard part, for me at least. I had to figure out the layout and prompts to include in the album. I did some extensive research. I stalked YouTube for baby albums, baby boy albums, baby boy mini albums, etc. I checked Pinterest front to back and back to front for links to baby boy albums. I looked through various Etsy stores selling baby albums. I went to various stores, flipping through baby albums. I went as far as to photograph some for future inspiration! (Don't worry, there was no stealing of prompts, designs, etc. In fact, after I did all that, I never looked at the photos after I took them.)

Next, comes the brain dump. I wrote down different techniques, pins or blog posts I wanted to look back to, ideas I definitely wanted to include in the album, colors I wanted to use, products I wanted to make sure to include, prompts, etc. It definitely helps me to just get all this stuff down onto paper.

So, now, we're at the part of actually designing/creating the mini album. I wanted to use various designs of pocket pages. I had stacks of 5 different designs, I had my supplies I purchased for this project, I had the album itself, I had my brain dump list, I pulled stuff from my stash coordinating with the main products, I had picked kraft as my neutral color to help make the album cohesive.

Ready!

I decided to to separate the album into three sections:

Birth/Welcome to the World

Monthly Highlights: A layout like this for the first 12 months

Favorites and Milestones

I am so, so SO proud of this mini album! This is just the first of many mini albums I see in my future! What was the most recent mini album you created? Was it for your memories or for someone else? Let me know in the comments section! I love reading your comments!

xoxo,

Heather

Supplies Bought Specifically for Mini Album

• First Tooth Paper by Pebbles
• It's A Boy Paper by Pebbles
• Special Delivery Die Cut Cardstock Shapes by Pebbles
• Special Delivery Journaling Card Pad by Pebbles
• Baby Boy Snap Cardstock Stickers by Simple Stories
• Baby Boy Snap 4x6 Card Pack by Simple Stories
• Baby Boy Snap 3x4 Card Pack by Simple Stories
• Baby Boy 12x12 Cardstock Stickers Sheet by Bella Blvd
• Baby Boy Cardstock Stickers-Miniature by Bella Blvd
• Baby Mine-Boy Collection Kit by Carta Bella
• DCWV Little Mister 12x12 Stack

Practical Scrappers Scrap Your Stash Blog Hop!

Welcome to this month's Practical Scrappers blog hop!  You should have arrived from Claude Campeau's blog.  This is my first blog hop EVER!  I'm very excited!  I loved participating in this hop, as it gave me an excuse to use up my bottomless stash.  

As you know, this month's theme is scrapping your stash.  Those that follow me on Instagram (@hsweet12), know that I'm participating in 30 Days of Lists.  I decided to make my own mini album using my stash for my book of lists.

Look at how pretty?!  I had so much fun making this album.  And, it was all such a spontaneous decision to participate in #30lists.  

I didn't purchase ANYTHING for this project.  It was AWESOME!  

I used some of my new products (e.g. MME's Charmed 6x6 paper pad, October Afternoon's Daily Flash alphas).

I used paper scraps that had been sitting in my scrap bucket for many, many months.  I pulled out Thickers I forgot I had...

I used glassine bags and packaging from scrapbook kits.

I used a lot of Project Life and journaling cards.

I had so much fun putting this together, I wanted to create mini album like this!  

So, as part of my giveaway for the blog hop, I will be creating a similar mini album as a prize!  The title can be personalized (i.e. it doesn't have to say "30 Days of Lists") and I won't put "List..." on every page!  But there will be a mix of Project Life cards, patterned paper scraps, cardstock scraps, glassine bags, tags, envelopes, etc.  

If you want to win a mini album, comment below!  Let me know what projects you're in the middle of right now!  Giveaway open only to US residents.  You have until Sunday, March 23rd at 11:59PM CST to leave a comment.  

Now, go check out how Patty Selah used her stash!

xoxo,
Heather

Part II of my Christmas 2013 Album

Happy Sunday lovely readers!  As I mentioned in my Just Two Midwest Girls scrap challenge post, I would post Part II of my Christmas album this weekend.  I have photos below of the Journal Your Christmas prompts #20-25 scrapped in my album.

Prompt #20

This prompt is all about a gift given to someone special.  My journaling will go on the tag(s) in the glassine envelope.  My pictures for the majority of my album do not correspond with my journaling.  I'm just including a photo for each prompt that I had taken throughout the month.  Darwin was my "trimming the tree" partner this year when I was decorating.  All he did was hang out in the tree box...great helper.

Prompt #21

 This page is about the reality of my December 21st; what my house looked like, what my day looked like.  That picture is not what my house looked like on the 21st!  I didn't even wrap any gifts until the 23rd!

Prompt #22

The journaling for this prompt will be about the things that make me smile, give me warm fuzzies during Christmas.  All the kindness, gratitude, and giving that comes with the holiday season.

Prompt #23

This prompt was assigned to December 23rd, or Christmas Eve Eve (that's what we call it).  I'll be journaling about some of our family traditions we do getting ready for the big day.

Prompt #24

Christmas Eve's prompt talks about why I love Christmas.  I made a vellum pocket to hold tags for my journaling.  That paper from Glitz Designs Hello December Line, the paper that says "what I love the most about Christmas," was perfect for this prompt.

Prompt #25

Christmas Day was definitely a two-page spread.  I had so much I wanted to include, that I'll have to include a smaller insert just for my journaling.

If you want to see more detailed photos of my Christmas Album:  Part II, check out my gallery at 2Peas.  Also, Kelly and I are hosting a challenge all about December/Christmas albums.  Details can be found here.  Those that play along could win a $5 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket!

I hope to have my Christmas journal completely done by the end of January.  I have 14 more prompts/layouts to scrap and a few layouts to "touch up."  I'm getting to the point where I just want this album to be done!  If I didn't have a few other projects to complete for future blog posts and Valentine's cards to make, I'd work on this album until it was finished!  

Have a wonderful Sunday!  Stay warm and safe if you're in my area and the northeastern part of the country.  See you all again on Monday.

xoxo,
Heather

Just Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenge: Christmas Albums!

Welcome back lovely readers!  Hope you all had a fabulous New Year's!

Kelly and I are beginning 2014 with a big project!  Our Christmas albums!  As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm doing Journal Your Christmas, which goes until January 6th.  So, my album is not done yet.  I have been good about keeping up on my journaling and deciding on pictures for each prompt (up until Christmas Day).  I just haven't been able to scrap each prompt yet.

I am proud to let you all know that I have scrapped each prompt up to and including Christmas Day (well, most of the prompts)!  That was my goal by the time we posted this challenge.  I will be taking a week off from working on my Christmas album to start my One Little Word album, work on a couple layouts, and get started on cards for my Etsy shop.  

Here are some pictures of my album so far.  I'm only showing you the completed pages.  I will upload my whole album to my 2Peas gallery when I have it finished (probably in parts because each project can only have 20 images).  I will also be posting my progress and finished pages on Instagram.  Make sure to follow me @hsweet12!

This is PHOTO HEAVY!  I'm not going to post every photo, but you can take a peek here for all the detailed photos.  **Prompt #18-25 I will post this weekend when I have better light.

Here are my title page (on the right because I couldn't get these pictures to post chronologically when next to one another) and my Christmas manifesto (left).  

The photo on the right is just an embellishment page.  Right now, that's my favorite part of scrapbooking: embellishing!  And I have tons of product, so I need to use it.  The photo on the left is all about our Christmas tree.  I have written this prompt in my journal, I just haven't transferred it to this page.

It's not Christmas without those special treats!  On the page of the small paper bag (seen in the photo below), I write about the infamous red coffee cup, which has become a holiday icon.

I couldn't resist cutting that red holiday cup with my cameo!

 This prompt is all about the types of lists I used to make when I was younger.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas are Christmas movies.  Elf is probably my favorite holiday movie.  I love Buddy the Elf.  He is definitely my "merry mentor."  That character always puts me in the Christmas mood.

 The top photo tells the story about that crocheted snowpeople couple.  The photo on the bottom talks about my ideal Christmas Day weather, which is, of course, a white Christmas (which we didn't get here in central IL).

The top photo contains my "still to do" list as of December 17th.  The bottom photo tells the story of the Christmas culture and entertainment I enjoy this time of year.

The top photo talks about when I "found out about Santa."  I wanted this to be hidden journaling just in case, years down the line, my kids decide to flip open the album.  And this bottom photo shows how thick my album is already!  At the time I took this photo, I only had scrapped prompts 1-17.  Yeah....

I cannot believe this album!  I am so, so proud of myself for staying on top of my daily journaling prompts AND for scrapping (almost) each prompt up to Christmas!  I only got to Day 5 in my December Daily 2012 album.  

So, come play along with us!  Show us your Christmas/December/holiday albums.  Link up your pictures in my comments section on this post or in Kelly's comments section on her blog.  It does not have to be a new project.  It can be a past album you already have uploaded elsewhere.  Those people that play along have a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket!  Hurry, the challenge is open until Thursday, January 16th at 8pm CST!

Now, go check out Kelly's blog!

xoxo,

Heather