Chaos Ensues

Recipe 52

Yaay. I finally have something to share with you on this project.

First off I created the book by cutting Stampin' Up! cardstock into 5"x7" pages (you can get two out of each 8.5"x11" sheet). I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes and then used book rings (sometimes called binder rings) to bind the book together. I used a total of 28 sheets which gave me 56 total pages..enough for my 52 recipes and photos, front and back covers and an introduction page. I may add one or two pages later on so that I can include an index once I'm finished with the project (that way I can easily categorize recipes even though I'm presenting them in the order that I make them).

Now for the cover and introduction page. I used Michiline Martin's Java Junkie for the papers and tape on both pages. The alpha I used for "A year of new food" also comes from this kit. For the Recipe 52 title I used Rachel Young's Painty Chipboard Alphabet. I used the font Traveling Typewriter for my introduction and my recipe cards. I created a 6"x4" canvas in my scrapping software for both of these and printed them on matte presentation paper.

The introduction reads: This recipe book was born from an idea I had while listening to an episode of The Digi Show where the panel discussed various scrapbooking projects they’ve tried, projects they’d like to try, and what has and hasn’t worked for them in the past. It’s really no secret that I love projects, but I tend to try to overachieve, which ultimately leads to failure. While listening to the show there was mention of the New 52 project that a couple of the panellists had taken part in last year and my thought was what a perfect way to capture the recipes of some of the new foods that we try each week. All three of us cook so this will be a family effort. I’m looking forward to having a completed cookbook at the end of the year and by doing it in weekly chunks, I’m so much more likely to finish this project. So here it is...our Recipe 52 cookbook for the year 2012.

Here are my first two recipes.

First week was a chocolate sheet cake from the Weight Watchers website.

Second week was an orzo salad that I found in a book called Poor Girl Gourmet by Amy McCoy.

I may make some notes in the margins as to what I think of the recipe, any substitutions I might make etc. but I haven't decided on that part as of yet. I wanted to keep it simple to begin with and printing 6"x4" photos and recipe cards seemed like the easiest way to tackle this project.

I have two hopes for this project, one that it will open my daughter up to trying more new foods, especially since I plan on her picking out some of the recipes and helping me prepare them, and two, that it helps me improve my food photography skills. Of course, a year of new recipes and a finished cookbook at the end are worth mentioning as well.

12 of Twelve and other projects...

So with the beginning of a new year I'm always optimistic that I'll get some great year long projects accomplished, and every year I fall short. This year I'm trying to make my projects a little simpler in hopes that I don't fail quite as easy or early (or hopefully not at all). The projects that I'm doing are Project Life and a weekly recipe project (using all new to me recipes) which I'm calling Recipe 52. I've got a good start on both of these projects and will be ready to share the beginnings of each of these in the near future, but today I want to share with you a 12 of Twelve project that made it's way into my plans after the first of the year.

I follow some people in the scrapping world that do 12 of Twelve...the basic concept is to take 12 photos on the twelth day of each month. After reading Katie Nelson's (aka Katie the Scrapbook Lady) blog post on the subject I decided it would be something I could easily do and add to my 2012 Project Life album.

To display my 12 of Twelve photos I chose to use a baseball card protector page which has a total of eighteen 2.5"x3.5" pockets. That's room for my title, twelve photos and five journaling spaces, which seemed perfect for this little project.

I used Mari Koegelenberg's new collection Today available at The Digi Chick to create the title and journaling blocks (the font is of my own handwriting and was created by Darcy Baldwin). The Today Collection was such a perfect perfect fit for my 12 of Twelve pages and I love all the different options I had to create these blocks.

Here is my completed January page.

Here's a closer look at each of the pages (please excuse the blurriness...I have to work on my shooting page protectors photography skills).

Front

Back

I love how this turned out, and really believe this once a month activity will really add an additonal layer to my project life album.

Five Things I Love Right Now...

Here are a few new to me things I absolutely love right now. Everything on this list is something I've either bought, learned about or implemented in my life in the past 3 months.

1. My new camera - it has a great zoom for a pocket camera and does a fantastic job in low light situations and since most of my photos are taken indoors that's key for me.

2. 750 words - I just finished a seven day streak this morning. I love starting my day with a cup of coffee and a brain dump.

3. Heidi Swapp on Create to Remember on My Craft Channel. I watched the first episode with the back to back bookbinding technique yesterday. I really want to make the gate fold folio with the offset pages. So cool. Can't wait to see what she does in the future.

4. My cleaning lists - I blogged about them at Log Your Memory.

5. My stockpot - I made a pot of beef stock last week and didn't have to worry about trying to make it all fit in my 6 qt. Dutch Oven.

 

It's always fun to discover new things. What's new in your life that you love right now?

 

 

August 2011

I thought I'd share a few picture with you from August.

We started a new school year on the 1st....can you believe Liz is in 5th grade already...totally blows my mind. 

Instead of using workboxes like we've done in the past I borrowed this idea and decided to do work folders since space is at a premium. The first page is assignments and where she'll find the materials (either online, in the pocket folder, or in a bin she has on her desk for books, and bigger materials). I've also started denoting with an asterick which things she needs to get my help with as opposed to things she can do independently.

 

Her workspace...we do use the kitchen table as well if we have a larger project that needs spread out space.
 

We went to a local festival and Liz made this recycled dragonfly craft.

Yummy tacos and a quesadilla that we all shared at the festival (we also tried a few other things but this was my favorite).

A notebooking page Liz did about Jackson Pollock. I love Homeschool Launch for lots of cool printables like this.
 

Dev's new toy...a cold brew coffee pot. It makes a really condensed coffee that you can either add hot water and make like an instant coffee..but the reason he really wanted it was for iced coffees. We're all a little bit addicted to grasshoppers (coffee, milk, white chocolate syrup, creme de menthe syrup)..he's even started making decaf coffee in this so Liz can have a grasshopper treat from time to time.

AJ is so enthralled by Rocky...he'll spend hours watching him.

We broke down and bought a new camera...it's still point and shoot but there are quite a few manual adjustments that can be made. Here's one of the first pictures out of the box (pretty sure just taken on auto..but I may have tweaked..not sure). It takes really decent low light pictures (which is good since 90% of my shots are probably indoors) and has a decent zoom.

And Dev had fun playing with the fisheye setting.

I'm pretty sure I'll be taking a bunch of pictures for some upcoming plans we have in September so I'll get to play around with the settings a bit more.

Dev started corning another beef brisket ala Alton Brown. He did one a few years ago and really liked it. I'm not really a big fan of corned beef but I'll eat it. Just looking forward to getting that big tub out of my fridge and regaining that space.

Liz also took a couple of Mixed Martial Arts classes but we've decided to go a new route and her and Devin will begin taking Kendo lessons in October. They're both really excited and Devin already bought their Shinai.

Other than that nothing new or exciting going on and right now I'm just enjoying the cooler weather and looking forward to spending the upcoming weekend with some awesome friends.

Today I am...

Katie Nelson (Katie the Scrapbook Lady) posted a Today I am bullet list on her blog.

I thought I would do the same.

Today I am...

1. Cleaning...My must dos for today..vacuum living room and computer room, mop kitchen floor, clean main bathroom, do a load of laundry.

2. Researching recipe binders. I love the idea for these...while it makes more sense  to put all my recipes on the computer (mainly for searchability and access from anywhere) I love the idea of sitting down at the kitchen table and pouring over my recipes to make my meal plan.

3. Planning on scrapbooking a couple Lilypad challenges. Still trying to get all seven done by tomorrow..have three done, one almost done, which leaves three to go. We'll see if I make it.

4. Cooking lasagna for dinner and making a homemade loaf of french bread to go with it.

5. Organizing Liz's school space. I can't believe we're less than a week away from fifth grade. My how time flies.

6. Reading. Matched by Ally Condie. The Lilypad is starting a book club and this along with The Giver by Lois Lowry is the first month's selection.

7. Continuing to make a Rhapsody playlist of WXPN's essential 885 songs from 2008 (The Heart of XPN)..I'm about 1/4 of the way through right now. I used to listen to XPN when I lived in Delaware and always loved their mix of music.

8. Watching The Voice. I didn't start watching from the beginning, but have spent the last couple of weeks catching up on Hulu. I recorded last nights episode and am looking forward to watching on a bigger screen.

Thanks Katie for the idea of blogging this. What a great way to remember and share what I'm doing right now.

 

And me without a computer...

So my computer is dead. I can't get it to boot, reformat my partition which held my operating system and program files on my hard drive, or be helpful in any way. So for the past few days I've been basically without my computer. I've checked my email and forums a few times during that period on Devin's computer but it's always so hard using someone elses computer. We've decided that for the time being (until I can either get my computer to work or we can afford a new one) that we will share. I'll use Devin's computer for scrapbooking and internet surfing during the day and later at night when he's either at work or asleep and I'll use Liz's computer for internet surfing when Dev's using his computer and playing WoW. I set up my own user account on Dev's computer last night  so all my stuff is now bookmarked and I copied my stuff over from my hard drive which makes my computer time so much easier.

I just hope we don't have too many issues, three computers with two people. I know to some that still sounds like an excess. There are larger families that share one computer or don't have a comptuer at all, but for the past 5 years or so we've been a three computer family. It's an adjustment.

Without having my own computer and own space I felt totally disconnected from the online world these past few days. I'm glad to be back so I can share with you a few of the goings on in our world.

We sent Liz's test in and should have the results in a couple of weeks. I really don't know what to expect but I'm hoping it'll help us determine if there are any areas that we really need to work on. Plus I now know that she stresses out a little bit during test taking so I know that we need to work on some test taking skills so she doesn't get so apprehensive about filling in those little dots.

I finally bought some fresh herbs for my kitchen. We started out with oregano, basil (my favorite), rosemary, flat leaf parsley, and chives. I'm so excited about just chopping off what I need when I need it. I've already used the parsley (for some mashed potatoes I made this weekend) and am planning on using the basil today.

I've been reading a bit more lately, I finished Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton, am currently reading Bossypants by Tina Fey and I am about to start reading Matched by Ally Condie for a book club (along with rereading The Giver by Lois Lowry for the same discussion).

Liz has been working on her sewing skills by making a handstitched bunny out of felt. She's getting ready to start on a monkey next. Can't wait to see how it turnes out.

The three of us went to a couple of local game stores on Saturday for Free RPG Day and found out about a new RPG being released in November by Goodman Games called Dungeon Crawl Classics. I have a feeling it's meant to be a bit silly but it still looks like fun and I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

I blogged for Log Your Memory this morning. All about making the weekly challenges work for you.

Our pet snake Rocky (ball python) who hasn't eaten since October decided it was a good idea to eat two rats this past week. This is the second winter that he totally went off food but this year was for a lot longer and totally scared us. I found out after all this that ball pythons can be extremely picky eaters. Just glad he's eating again. Guess we need to make sure he's good and fat before next winter rolls around, we were just getting to the point where we thought we might have to take him to a vet and get them to force feed him, glad it didn't come to that.

I visited two farmer's markets this weekend...while I did prefer one over the other I was really less than impressed...seemed to be more tupperware and avon than actual food (one of them only had one produce stand). There are a few farm stands in our area which may actually end up being a better choice for us. I did pick up some of the best radishes I've ever had and some rhubarb which we stewed and served over vanilla ice cream for father's day (Dev's favorite dessert).

We've played a few games as a family -  Sorry Sliders, Skip-Bo, Payday,  Once Upon a Time and Forbidden Island (which we just picked up at a game store this weekend).

Liz and I watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last week and we've continued to watch The Cosby Show (as a family) and Wings (Dev and me) on Netflix.

We went for a family walk through our neighborhood and visited the local playground. As usual there were no other children there (I haven't quite figured it out yet but it seems like most of the parks in the area go completely unused...I rarely see kids playing on the equipment....so strange to me).

Hope you enjoyed the little glimpse of how we've spent the last week or so. I have a few photos I'm wanting to share with you all in  future post but I need to get them edited first (which means installing more software on Dev's computer). I'll work on getting that done in the next couple of days. See ya then!

A Few of My Favorite Websites

I spend too much time on the computer for sure...but I have good reason. There are so many amazing sites out there that I just wanted to share with you. Here are a few of my favorites right now.

1. Log Your Memory - I found LYM at the beginning of last year and love the encouragement there to scrap your everyday. Since I found the site I try to do the weekly challenges found in the Memory Logbook and find that the challenges really help me to scrap memories that I otherwise wouldn't think to scrap about.

2. Pinterest - Pinterest is an amazing source of inspiration. Think of it as a social visual bookmarking site. The way it works is you can pin images that you find on the web to various pinboards but you can also follow and repin stuff off of other people's pinboards. Katie at The Daily Digi did an amazing post about how to use Pinterest. Check it out here. If you want an invite let me know and I'll get one sent out to you.

3. The Daily Digi - Most of you probably know that I'm a digital scrapbooker and I find the information at The Daily Digi to be so helpful. There are lots of tutorials, info about products and designers, and even the undigi (posts about non scrapbooking related items). The other thing that The Daily Digi offers are The Digi Files, which offers 7 digital scrapbooking products for $7.50 (or equal to $6.87 if you purchase an annual subscription). When I first started digi scrapbooking I bought these deals a lot. It was a great way to increase my scrapping stash and learn about designers and stores without spending a lot of money.

4. The Lily Pad - Since Inspiration Lane closed down at the beginning of the year I've been feeling a little bit homeless.  A couple of months ago I discovered The Lily Pad. I love the challenges there, the sales and the community as a whole. The products they sell are absolutely amazing and I love how easy it is to mix and match products when creating a layout.

5. Netflix - I have been a Netflix member since 2002. It's only gotten better with quicker delivery and the instant watch feature. Currently we are working our way through Wings and The Cosby Show, Liz is watching Phineas and Ferb and we even manage to watch a movie in there from time to time. We cancelled cable about two and a half years ago, so Netflix plays a big part in entertaining us.

6. Sporcle - If you know me then you probably know that I love trivia. Sporcle is a fun site devoted to trivia. Some games are hard, some are easy, some are near impossible for me, but I love the way the games are set up in different genres and different formats. Totally fun!

Of course, these are just a few of the places that help me fill my online day. I hope you enjoy them!

 

Glasses

Dev just got new glasses...we picked them up Tuesday after we got home from our long weekend in Arkansas.  They're pretty similar to the old ones (same shape, same color) but they're plastic and he can see out of them.

He decided he wanted to see what Liz looked like in glasses so he called her in and said try them on. He asked if everything looked funny..she said no not really. So we had her take the glasses off and  stand about 10 feet away from the bookshelf in the living room and asked if she could read the And the Crowd Goes Wild book spine. She couldn't.

So we had her put Devin's glasses back on. Guess what...she could read that spine and many of the others as well. We then had her stand back from the tv which had a description of an episode of The Cosby Show we had just watched on it and had her read. She read it with no problem so Dev said ok take off the glasses and read from where it says Rudy...her response...Where does it say Rudy?

We had kind of laughed when we were playing the alaphabet game on the way to Arkansas and Liz was on F and we passed a truck that was painted all over with huge Fs...now it makes sense. We just thought the vehicle was going to fast for her to read it. Turns out she's nearsighted.

We were lucky to get an appointment on Wednesday to get her eyes checked. Here are the glasses she picked out.

We were told it would be about a week until they were ready. I was really surprised to get a call the next day informing me that her glasses were ready. Turns out they were able to do them in house. We went and picked them up as soon as Dev got off work. Aren't they cute?

As we were driving away from the eyeglass place there was a stop sign about a block away...Liz commented that Wow...I can actually read stop (yikes)..turns out without her glasses it kind of looked like a circle.

She also commented that the resolution looked so much better on the tv. She's loving her new ablility to see things clearly even if she does complain about having to wear the new glasses from time to time. She takes a break from them about twice a day (thankfully she isn't having too hard a time adjusting when reading or doing schoolwork which was a concern of the doctor).  I think Liz looks adorable in her new glasses and I am so glad that we were able to get everything taken care of so quickly and easily.

January 2011 photos

Just wanted to share a few photos from January with you all.

1. Liz with her new LEGO set.

2. Saturday morning...finishing some schoolwork she didn't complete during the week.

3. One of the Newbery Award Books that Liz read this month...other award books she read were Holes, The Bridge to Teribethia and Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH.

4. Playing Chinese Checkers (Devin won)

5. Liz's LEGO creation following the instructions that came with the kit.

6. Liz making a loaf of bread...this was one of her morning chores until I accidentally threw the paddle out.

7. Our very ugly $42 couch...I'm amazed at what fantastic condition it's in though.

8. Liz's first LEGO creation, built at a LEGO workshop. She made so many things with this small set of bricks, including dogs, a kangaroo, a rabbit, an alien and a giraffe.

9. Dev and Liz acting goofy.

10. Liz reading a book from one of her favorite book series, Geronimo Stilton.

11. A friend gave me some beef bones to make some stock from. It turned out fantastic...and for about $1.00 I ended up with about 3 quarts of stock.

 

 

Memory Keeping the Everyday Way

Last year I discovered an amazing product called the Memory Logbook which is put out by Kristin Rutten at Log Your Memory. I was lucky (and I guess some would argue talented) enough to get one of my layouts chosen for the 2011 version. Knowing that my printer is not crazy about printing double sided and throws all kinds of fits I decided to get the perfect bound version for 2011. I find this version to be a little bulky for me since I like to carry it around when we're out so I can jot things down or look at the upcoming challenges while I'm waiting. I decided to take my logbook to FedEx Office and have them cut the spine off so I ended up with individual pages that could be three hole punched and but in a binder or folder. At my local shop it cost me $1.57 with tax to get this done and it only took a couple of minutes. After I got home I gathered up my supplies (I have a three hole punch but I believe FedEx Office can punch the pages for you as well). In addition to the memory logbook and punch, I also gathered a 3 ring binder, a 3 prong folder with pockets, some manila file folders and additional items I want to keep with my logbook such as other scrapbook challenges and a few of the addons that Kristin also has available in her store.

My next step was to divide the logbook into monthly sections (which included the calendars and challenges for each month), monthly calendar pages and questionaires. I also made a folder labeled misc. for keeping track of my addon pages and anything else that I might find helpful.

Once I divided everything out  and punched the holes I placed the January calendar and pages in the 3 prong folder. I also make good use of the pockets. I keep scrap related stuff such as challenges and CT requirements in the front pocket and more personal stuff in the back pocket, such as nutrition tracker, daily todo lists, etc.

I found this blog post on the LYM blog from January 2010 and knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate Stacy's method for recording memories. I absolutely love the addition of photos to the text.

Each day I write down a few things about my day leaving space for my photos. I then open up my scrapping program and on an 8.5" x 11" canvas begin placing the photos for each day's entry (making sure to measure my available space so I can make sure my photos fit) and any additional pieces I might want to add such as my happiness letter stickers and floral border.

Once I have a full page of images I print my page onto matte presentation paper and add the images to my log book (I love my little xyron x for this).

I've also decided that I'm going to use the Notes section beside Sunday each week to record a recipe for something that we ate that week. This can be a tried and true family favorite or something new that we liked. This week was our homemade pizza recipe complete with a picture of the yummy goodness.

The last page of each week is a full notebook page and I use this page to either elaborate on a story from the week or record an idea. Here is a little bit about my 2011 one little word and some ways I might be able to incorporate it into projects throughout the year. If I have more ideas I may go back and add to this page since there's still plenty of room. Other things I've included on this page in the following weeks were my daughter's new found love of all things LEGO and my unexpected dissappointed over the Bears loss to the Green Bay Packers last weekend. Other things I might include here are my daughter's school schedule, our weekend routine...really anything that will document what this point of time in our life is like.

I also decided to print a low quality (just on plain copy paper) version of my weekly challenge layouts  and use the area below to talk about my feelings for the challenge and why I chose the topic that I did. I think it'll be neat to be able to go back and look at all of my pages as they relate to the challenges.

So that's pretty much my logbook in a nutshell. I love usuing the folder method because I love the full size pages and this makes it portible for me. I also find the pockets to be so handy in keeping up with my day to day life. In this folder I've created a sort of hub for my daily life, both in memory keeping and in organization. I keep this book with me at almost all times and jot down notes or review my to-do list when I have a spare moment.

At the end of January I will transfer these pages to my three ring binder and place February's pages into the folder. At the end of the year I'm hoping to have a really good overview of our year, the things we did as a family, the books we are reading, the games we are playing, the food we are eating, ours highs and our lows, all captured on these pages.

I hope that you have all enjoyed this look at how I keep track of our day to day life and hope that this post inspires you to record your everyday life.