Ten on Tuesday

1.  I have a really good excuse for missing last week.  A stomach virus hit our house last weekend, so I was hunkered down.  It came back Sunday night to hit another kid, too.  I'm the last one standing at this point.  Yes, I'm paranoid that I'm next.

2.  Despite Reagan starting to be pretty unhappy, Kim Greenfield still got some very cute family pictures a week ago.  You can see some of them here.

 
3.  Did everyone have a fun Halloween?  My boys decided that they wanted to be Mario and Luigi this year, so I decided they needed a Princess Peach as well.  We bought the boys' costumes, and for Princess Peach, I bought a pink dress on Amazon and followed this tutorial for the crown and pendant.  I think it's a win this year.  They're adorable.

4.  Any other Black List fans out there?  I just discovered it a few weeks ago, and I'm obsessed.  It reminds me a lot of Alias, another favorite.

5.  Home is on constant repeat in our house.  Both of the younger kids love it.  When she was sick last week, it was one of the few sure-fire ways to calm Reagan down for a few minutes.  I think we can all pretty much quote it.

6.  I admit that I'm excited Inside Out comes out today.  I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard good things, and I'm glad to get something else into regular rotation.

7.   You know I love a good printable, right?  I just got a few printed to put up in Reagan's room.

 source

 

 source

 

  source 

(I changed the original color)

8.  Speaking of our house.  This is what it looked like when we bought it.  We've made a few changes so far, but we have bigger plans I'm hoping to make happen in the next year, including black shutters and awnings. 

 

 9.  I painted the boys' room the first month we lived here, and I STILL haven't finished the city wall.  But here it is.  Eventually there will be yellow windows.

 10.  And here is the only before and after pictures I've done.  We painted all the trim and the mantle and whitewashed the brick, and I love it.  Please ignore the off-center tv and cords.

Happy Tuesday, Friends!





    

    

Line-A-Day Five-Year Journal - Free Download!

I started keeping a Line-A-Day journal in 2012.  The idea is to use a book like this and write just one line (or a few sentences) each day.  With five years on each page, at the end it's fun to look back and see how things have changed.  At first, I just started an email draft and wrote a sentence about each day.  Initially my plan was to buy a book and write in what I had recorded so far.  But I put it off and put it off and eventually realized that I actually prefer to keep it digital.  It's handy for me to be able to search the document to find where I mentioned something or (I confess) correct spelling errors etc as I reread.  But since I really liked the format of the books, I created a word document for me to keep track of my journaling and then print out at the end of 5 years.


I shared a document last year that spanned 2013 - 2017, but I didn't get it posted on my blog until the end of February, so this year I wanted to share the 2014 - 2018 version with plenty of time to psych yourselves up for it and get started promptly on January 1.  Of course that didn't happen either, but 2 1/2 weeks in isn't too terrible.  :)

download here

There are a few things you need to do to use the document.  First, you need to download the fonts that I used.  They are afta serif and duality.  If you're not sure how to install fonts, there's a great tutorial right here at The Shabby Creek Cottage.  The word document is locked for editing except for adding your name and your daily entries.  But I didn't password protect it, so if you're Word savvy and want to change the fonts, you're more than welcome.  I will warn you that the way I formatted the dates might cause a headache if you try to make changes, so attempt that at your own risk.  

Thanks for reading!  I'm so excited to share this with you, and I hope some of you get a lot of use out of it.  If you download and use this, I'd love to hear from you!

NOTE:  This document is for personal use only!  

And if you'd like to mention this on your blog, 

please link directly to this post rather than to the 

download link. Thanks!

Free Christmas Card Template

Have you guys seen the Holiday Card Templates that Becky Higgins is offering over on her website?  She had a design contest last month, and I got up the nerve to send in a submission.  I'm kind of bummed that my design didn't get chosen, but I still wanted to offer it in case someone else would like to use it.  I made a .png file in 3 different sizes. 

To use it, just drop your picture behind the .png file.  Here's an example using a family picture from last year:

download 4x6

download 5x7

download 6x7.5

I'm offering this free for personal use, so if you'd like to use it, just click to download whichever size works best for you.

Project Life | Weeks 40 & 41 (+ a freebie!)

I'm caught up on my album!  I'm not caught up on photographing it, but I'm caught up on the pages.  The long weekend was wonderful; I got in the zone on Friday and finally resurfaced sometime yesterday.  So, 2 weeks for today, and then next week I'll have 3 or 4 for you.

Week 40 Full Spread.

Week 40 Left Side.  After putting all the pictures in, I realized that this side features the boys 100%, so I made a little printable of a quote I saw on pinterest a while back (keep scrolling to grab the file!).  I printed it 3x4, but made the file 6x8 in case I ever wanted to print it larger.  Then I just used glue-dots to mount it on some seafoam paper.

Week 40 Right Side.  I had 2 groups of pictures I wanted to put on 4x6 pictures together, so I copied the look that Tracy Larsen rocks and made some templates of my own in Photoshop Elements.  The two printables are images that DeseretBook pinned (1, 2) regarding General Conference. 

  (Free for personal use.  Click to enlarge, then right-click and save.)

Week 41 Full Spread.

Week 41 Left Side.  This spread was all about our road trip.  We didn't leave until Wednesday, but I pushed all our other pictures to previous or later weeks so that I had two full spreads to dedicate to our trip to Utah.  It was brutal to edit and not use every single picture I had, but that's been one of my goals this year, and I'm really happy with how it's turned out.  Again, I took a page from Tracy Larsen's album and tried to include more white space.  I included the picture of the front seat to illustrate that I wore my snuggie the whole drive.  Tyler's always burning up and I'm always freezing, so it was perfect.

Week 41 Right Side.  Again, lots of pictures.  I wanted to draw the drive, so I made the USA card in word, then printed it to pdf and opened it in photoshop elements.  Word art, then pdf, then png.    If anyone has a copy of Illustrator that's collecting dust, I'd be happy to take it off your hands.

Thanks for looking!  Stay tuned next week for the second half of our Utah vacation.  You can check out my other Project Life pages here.

(I'll be linking up to Project Life Tuesday at The Mom Creative. And for more information on Project Life, click here.)

Project Life | Weeks 26 & 27 + Freebie!

First of all, thank you for the sweet comments last week.  I struggled with how to include Brooklyn's passing, and I appreciate your kind words.

In fact I was so concerned with how to best document it that I didn't realize until this week that I didn't update the week on my date card, so it says week 24 rather than 25.  Whoops.  I'll update that in my album, but I don't plan to correct the pictures in the post.

Week 26 Full Spread.

Week 26 Left Side.  I love how the 2 vertical 4x6s with Mason making faces turned out.  I just created 2 different collages to make it look like one long collage.  The pictures are a little grainy because we were using a lower-res app (FirstCamera - doesn't save pictures to your camera roll until you save them from inside the app), but I loved his goofy faces, so I decided to use them anyway.

Week 26 Right Side.  I just realized I need to add journaling to the LogYourRun screenshot.  Tyler has run 600 miles in the last year!  The app shows a map of him running across the US.  |  The "right now" card is from the midnight kit recolored to match my title card.  |  The font on the captions is Bebas.

Week 27 Full Spread.

Week 27 Left Side.  The striped card is from the Honey kit, though I recolored the blue and red slightly.  |  The picture of Tyler putting the hat on Mason is a success story about strategically positioning captions.  Lincoln walked into the shot and his head is on the bottom of the picture.  But since you can still see the cute interaction between Tyler and Mason, I just covered Lincoln's head with a half circle and caption.

Week 27 Right Side.  The star filler card is from the Honey kit.  Again I recolored it a little.  |  I got the idea for the Pledge of Allegiance flag card here, and I decided to make my own version as a filler for this week.  See below for a free printable.  |  The glare on the upper right photo makes the caption tough to read.  I got a new hands free selfie app and asked Tyler if he wanted to try it out with me.  This was the result.  The picture is pretty low-res because I had to zoom in, but that was the funny part, so I went with it.  |  I didn't realize until I printed them how dark the pictures of the room painting were.  I'm debating leaving them as they are or lightening them up and reprinting. 

 (Free for personal use.  Click to enlarge, then right-click and save.)

Thanks for looking!  You can check out my other Project Life pages here.

(I'll be linking up to Project Life Tuesday at The Mom Creative. And for more information on Project Life, click here.)

Project Life | Week 22 (With Free Cut File)

I actually had these pictures ready to share last week, but I hadn't uploaded the cut file yet, so I decided to wait to post it.  It works out since I'm still in a creative slump over week 23.

Full Spread.

Left Side.  We ran in the Cotton Row 10k on Monday of this week.  I didn't bring my camera because how many pictures of us before or after a race do we really need?  I did snag a picture online of the flag flying over the start/finish line, though.  I made the star filler card using the penultimate app and then recoloring it in PSE. 

Right Side.  I am in love with those close-ups of Lincoln and Mason.  I'm experimenting with my new DSLR, and while I'm still using Creative Auto, I'm loving the results.  The "today is a gift" card is recolored from the digital Jade kit.  I finally broke down and purchased a few filler card sets, and I'm in love. 

And do you see that little "RECIPE" tab?  Here's a closer look at what I did there.  I made a 3x4 tabbed card in PSE, opened it in silhouette and added the text.  Then I printed out the recipe slightly smaller than 4x6, folded it, and used glue-dots to attach to the tabbed card.  It was actually really easy, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I need to buy some more plain cardstock, though.  Ha!

And I thought some of you might also like to include some recipes in your albums, so I've included a link to download the silhouette file (for personal use only, please):

 

(dowload here)

Thanks for looking!  You can check out my other Project Life pages here.

(I'll be linking up to Project Life Tuesday at The Mom Creative. And for more information on Project Life, click here.)

Project Life | Weeks 5 - 8 + Freebie!

I can't believe it's practically March.  This month really has flown by; how do I have 4 weeks to post!?  I'm loving my album this year.  So glad I decided to try not rounding the corners.  And I'm loving some of the techniques I'm making an effort to include from some of my PL idols.  I'm trying harder to leave space for simple patterned filler cards.  I'm minimizing the number of fonts I use.  I'm journaling with colored backgrounds and white text rather than always on white cards with black text.  I'm trying to include at least one b&w picture each week.  I kind of want to go back to my 2012 album and redo some of it, but I need to resist that urge.

Week 5 Full Spread.

Week 5 Left Side.  Lincoln's birthday was on Monday, so this entire side is about that.  How does the picture of him in his spiderman costume relate, you ask?  Why, because that's what he wore to the babysitter's on his birthday.  I blogged about his cake here, if you're curious.

Week 5 Right Side.  My birthday was the following Sunday, and Tyler and I went out to dinner on Friday.  And since I was looking forward to that all week long, it got quite a bit of space in my spread.   I might replace that green glitter filler card; it looks kind of out of place this week.

Week 6 Full Spread.

Week 6 Left Side.  I was pretty thrilled about my birthday cake, which you can read more about here.  Lincoln was sick Sunday night and Monday morning Mason crawled into bed with him to try to give him his sippy cup.  Adorbs.  And I'm not sure you can tell, but the selfie was an attempt to take a picture of my eyes when they were dilated.

Week 6 Right Side.  Journaling and pictures.  Cute kids, right?  Mason started walking this week!  Not just 3 steps, he switched from predominantly crawling to predominantly walking in about a day.  And how funny is Lincoln in Mason's high-chair?  We don't even use the tray for Mason any more, but Lincoln wanted to eat dinner there.  A little jealous of the baby, perhaps?

Week 7 Full Spread.

Week 7 Left Side.  Isn't that sunset amazing?  The picture doesn't really do it justice.  And I was inspired by Catherine Davis's silhouette card which she made for the Queen's diamond jubilee last year to make one to mention the Pope announcing his retirement.  We aren't Catholic, but it's still pretty big news.  Feel free to grab it if you'd like to use it as well.

 

 (click to enlarge, then right-click and save)

Week 7 Right Side.  I saw this idea to use ribbon as a pull-out tab, and decided to use that to include Grandma Dewitt's obituary.  You can see below how it pulls out and opens.  I just printed the obituary and folded it, then glued it to the pink card.  And those are grapes as the wheels on Lincoln's apple cars, not olives.  They look a little questionable, but they were a huge hit.  I blogged about my charm bracelet this week, so I decided to include it as well. 

Week 8 Full Spread.

Week 8 Left Side.  I finally ordered some Seafoam cardstock, and thought it was perfect for the spread this week.

Week 8 Right Side.  I texted that picture to Tyler and he posted it on facebook with that caption.  I loved it, so I did a screen grab and printed it out to caption the picture in the album.  It's also notable that Mason has learned to climb onto the couch.  

Thanks for looking!  You can check out my other Project Life pages here.

(I'll be linking up to Project Life Tuesday at The Mom Creative. And for more information on Project Life, click here.)

Line-A-Day Five-Year Journal - Free Download!

I started keeping a Line-A-Day journal last year.  The idea is to use a book like this and write just one line (or a few sentences) each day.  With five years on each page, at the end it's fun to look back and see how things have changed.  At first, I just started an email draft and wrote a sentence about each day.  Initially my plan was to buy a book and write in what I had recorded so far.  But I put it off and put it off and eventually realized that I actually prefer to keep it digital.  It's handy for me to be able to search the document to find where I mentioned something or when something happened.  But I really liked the format of the books, so I formatted a word document for me to keep track of my journaling and print out at the end of 5 years.



And I know we're two months into the year (already!), but I finally got a 2013 version formatted and available for download! If you're like me, you have facebook, emails, blog posts, and pictures to help you fill in some info for the days missed.  And if not, there's no harm in starting today anyway.  Except to your OCD.

download here

There are a few things you need to do to use the document.  First, you need to download the fonts that I used.  They are afta serif and duality.  If you're not sure how to install fonts, there's a great tutorial right here at The Shabby Creek Cottage.  The word document is locked for editing except for adding your name and your daily entries.  But I didn't password protect it, so if you're Word savvy and want to change the fonts, you're more than welcome.  I will warn you that the way I formatted the dates might cause a headache if you try to make changes, so attempt that at your own risk.  

Edited to add:  If you're not familiar with the concept, there's not a lot of information on here to get excited about.  So here's a screenshot of a sample page of the journal.  I hope that helps clear up some confusion.

Thanks for reading!  I'm so excited to share this with you, and I hope some of you get a lot of use out of it.  If you download and use this, I'd love to hear from you!

I'm linking up at these crafty parties.

NOTE:  This document is for personal use only!  

And if you'd like to mention this on your blog, 

please link directly to this post rather than to the 

download link. Thanks!

Project Life 2013 | Weeks 1-3 + Freebies!

I'm breaking my 4-week trend, so everyone hold on to your hats!  This is also the first time I've been caught up on posting my Album!  Woohoo!

Week 1 Full Spread.

Week 1 Left Side.  I've decided to embrace a minimalist approach this year rather than apologize for it and wish I used more ephemera.  It's almost exclusively pictures and journaling.  Having said that, I actually did include a scoresheet from one of our games on New Years.  I seriously kicked some trash.
I made my weekly title circles this year because I don't have a punch big enough to use September Blue's this year.  I'm not sure I'm loving it, though, so that might change in the coming weeks. I saw a new years countdown card here on Theresa Marie, and I knew I had to copy it.  And I know it's a little late, but you're welcome to use it as well.  :)  Just click to open the full-res picture (below the album picture), then right click and save.  If you use it, I'd love to see!

Week 1 Right Side.  If you've been reading for awhile, you might remember that I included Manifestos in my album last year, but I kind of missed the boat on writing my own.  So I've been working on one for this year, and I included it in my album.  And if you'd like to borrow it to use or simply for inspiration, feel free!  Just click to open the full-res picture (below the album picture), then right click and save.  Again, if you use it, I'd love to see!

I also included a google maps screenshot of our road trip to Tampa.  It was for the cruise we took during week 2, but the drive was on Saturday, so I put it with this week. 

Week 2 Full Spread.

Week 2 Left Side.  Cruise week!  It's all pictures except for one 4x6 spot with a journaling summary and a 3x4 spot on the right side with our itinerary.  I thought about including an insert with more pictures, but I decided to make a minibook instead.  I haven't made one before, but I think it's going to be a fun project!  (Note: "Captain's Log" IS as nerdy as it sounds.  It's also apropos since we were on a ship.)

Week 2 Right Side.  See?  Nerdy.  We even won sci-fi trivia.  When I couldn't choose just one more picture to use in the last 4x6 slot, I decided to make a collage with all our selfies.  We both got pretty good at those selfies - no front camera.

 

Week 3 Full Spread.

Week 3 Left Side.  Mason's 15-month check-up was this week, so I wanted to include a growth chart.  I originally made the file to use for their baby albums (which I plan to start soon).  I got the original file here, but I converted it from a .pdf to a .png and cleaned up some of the extra info.  If you'd like, feel free to grab it!  Just click to open the full-res picture (below the album picture), then right click and save. On this page, I also included the "i love us" printable which I got here.

Week 3 Right Side.  More pictures of my cute boys.  I also snagged a cartoon a friend shared on facebook, so I don't have a source.  It really is like that when it snows down here.  Crazy.

 

Thanks for looking!  You can check out my other Project Life pages here.

(I'll be linking up to Project Life Tuesday at The Mom Creative. And for more information on Project Life, click here.)