pamgarrison

i love to repurpose

I love this little planted wooden bowl so much. 

Thought I'd share this in case you want to make one too. 

I found the serving bowl at HomeGoods, it had a big crack in it all down the side and on the bottom. Which meant it was super marked down. I couldn't resist getting it to use as a planter. I had already gotten some succulents from Home Depot that were in need of a home, so I just tucked some dry moss in the crack to keep the dirt in but still let it drain, filled it with a little succulent fast draining soil and tucked the plants in. 

Really couldn't be easier. I love it on our outdoor dining table. I think it would make a great gift to bring to someone's home too.

I thought it was a fluke, but then a friend mentioned she saw another cracked wooden bowl at a different HomeGoods, so maybe they bought a whole lot of the damaged ones. I know I'll be checking the clearance isle first the next time I'm in one! 

modified quilt project wip

Yesterday, I showed pictures of quilt pieces I was cutting this weekend and referenced yet another quilt project I was throwing into the mix. I know I need to finish up the others, but sometimes, an idea takes hold and I just need to pursue it a little to free the space in my crowded, idea filled brain. I think I called them octagons yesterday, but today when taking these photos I realized that they are actually hexagons. 

I picked up this started and abandoned quilt top in Kansas. As a creative type that leans towards more projects than time, I can understand how such a thing comes to be and I love the thought of putting all that love and work to good use by collaborating with the original quilter. You can see there are some hexagon flowers off to the right that never got added to the quilt top.

I'm pretty crazy for all the vintage fabrics. I am constantly inspired by the old quilting fabrics, always have been. I plan on someday making a line of my own too, somehow mixing the vintage feel with a more current style. One of many dreams. :)

Colors, pattern, scale, combinations...so much to see and learn from. 

I have ideas for the piece of already sewn together quilt, but for now, I was itching to use some of these loose pieced flowers...

I also bought this quilt while in Kansas. (There are some mighty good deals to be had in Kansas, especially at Whatever Craft Weekend.) I believe this finished quilt cost $40 when all was said and done. All that work!

The truth is, I was attracted to the chartreause color, and the white (with that sweet bit of pink thrown in above), and the overall the clean lines of the design. I am not attracted to the hand painting, it really gave me pause when considering whether to purchase. I'm sure many people find it beautiful, just not my thing here.

And that's where the old quilt pieces come in...

I'm thinking that I'll like the quilt better if in the center of each square I put one of the pieces surrounded by white to cover all the painted parts. (Sometimes I think the part that is original would look good showing in part, but not this time.) I haven't decided how I'll enlarge the fower with a white border yet, you can see I was trying more hexagons, just not sure yet...

I didn't have enough flowers for all 20 squares, so I made a cardboard template based on the vintage pieces, and began cutting fabric this weekend. I went to my stash and chose vintage fabrics, reproduction vintage fabrics, and new fabrics.

 

I started hand sewing them together too, but just today decided it was taking too long and that machine stitching would be fine in the name of progress.

The top three left are machine stitched, those on the top right are vintage, the middle is the sets still to stitch, (down to four!) and the bottom row is all handstitched from this weekend.

When working on a project like this, I count down over and over, it helps me keep going when at first the number feels large. I'm sure some of you out there do this too? I especially do with repetitive sewing things- numbers to cut, number to stitch etc. A means of  crossing items off a mental list? I don't know.

Anyway, after I stitch these four I'll experiment with white border ideas and then likely apliqué them on. As far as quilting projects go, this adaptation of an already completed quilt shouldn't be too time consuming...I'll keep you posted! 

weekend creative goings on

I hope you had a lovely weekend. 

Mine was pretty full, lots of different things on my creative to do list. I made good progress on some, no progress on others...the way it often goes, right? 

I did stop to smell the roses and photograph them too. I love the photo above of the beautiful bloom in the early morning. another flower from the same rose bush later in the day below. I wish I knew the name of the rose! It came over from the old house and lost it's tag in the process. It's not an Abraham Darby, but it is an antique rose. 

I've been remembering to pick up my big camera (vs. my iphone or little camera) a bit more these days. I am happy about that. Not sure if it's due to learning to document from a different angle (project life), my rededication to my blog, or the desire to work on taking better photos, but I'm happy about it, whatever the reason. 

So here's a little of what I captured of my weekend in photos:

I went out and cut some flowers first thing Saturday morning, which starts the weekend off right for me. Something so grounding about time in the garden. 

I have always loved flowers and flower arranging. I miss it, I used to do it so much more often.

There  seems to be a paint jar near the kitchen sink more often than not, so this time it was put to use as a vase: 

Found it hard to stop taking photos. Love that pink paint spot too. 

Let's see...what else did I grab photos of?

I washed all the various quilts/quilt tops that I've collected over the years (and that arrived from my Whatever Craft Weekend shopping- pics soon). I've got a bunch of various projects going on quilt wise and wanted to know that everything was clean and ready to use/sort/figure out what I'm doing with. Been thinking about an insta-flash sale, they seem so poplular these days. 

I started cutting out some octagon shapes so I can create some quilt flowers to match the vintage ones I already have. The plan is to add them to this quilt top in order to cover the fabric paint areas I'm not fond of. One of the many quilt projects in progress mentioned above. Of course, I'll blog all about them eventually. 

A girlfriend came over with a giant canvas that she wanted to replace in her house. She bought it years ago and it was very dark. We figured I could lighten it up. Even if it needs a little restretching (painting over it is making the canvas wrinkle a little) she's ahead $ wise, and will lighten her family room a lot. Not sure where I'm going with it, but it was fun to start and visit with her at the same time. 

She doesn't want any bright colors, but I couldn't resist just a little Nova Paint on there in Fluorescent Red! I had to reassure her many times that these were just the beginning layers :).

Since I was already in the garage, I started on a little stool I recently bought in need of some TLC. I coated the rotted parts of the top with wood putty and am in the process of sanding it smooth (ish). I don't think I'll try to match the color, might be fun to have it be a stripe of something else. 

My new daily use printer arrived. I had hoped to set it up, but never had the energy or focus I knew it would require from me. Hopefully today, as soon as I finish this post. Which should be now. :) As you can see, many projects in progress, none complete. Here's hoping this is a very productive week. Sort of feeling a bit behind and it's just begun. Hate starting Monday that way, hope your week is off to a better start!!!  

upcoming class at french general

I made two more Paper Parasol samples for my upcoming class at French General and sent them off to the shop without remembering to photograph them or share them here. I'll try to get some more photos of them soon and will post them here.

Here's the original sample post with more photos. 

Although we called the class Painted Parasols, truly, there is no paint involved. We'll be painting them with thread and notions and ephemera and colorizing a different way. I can't wait to share the fun supplies I found that work so wonderfully on these. (and those tools I found to not work so well), for those students that go home with the urge to make more. 

I'm telling you, I find this play rather addicting. They are just so pretty. 

I wonder if students will choose to personalize theirs or make them more like the original sample that I made. Will they be gifts, or personal treasures made to keep? 

You know I love hand lettering, and will be sharing some favorite styles, and fun new discovery which will make drawing letters or designs on your paper umbrella super easy. 

We'll have all the supplies and goodies needed but students can bring any special trinkets or a family photo if you'd like to add extra special meaning to it. Really, anything goes when it comes to these flights of fancy! 

Looking forward to spending the day creating alongside those of you able to join us. 

Painted Parasols at French General 

Saturday, May 11, 2013 • 1-4pm

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project life • week 13

This was week 13, March 25-March 31 (yikes, a few weeks ago!)

Above is the left page of the spread. (It's a Design D page.)

I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut out the "oh yes!" on the date card. 

{Here are the cute paper pennants.}

It was a full week for us, as my daughter was home for spring break and Easter too. 

I had a lot of photos I wanted to use, so I ended up using two additional inserts. 

I wanted them to be different sizes than each other and smaller than the standard week pages so that it's obvious it's all part of the same week. In the photo above you can see the two spreads, each having a tag on the edge for ease of flipping, and to label it as far as the Easter page goes. 

The first insert (above) was just a series of photos that I had taken of my kids one day. I had planned to go out and get one of them together and just took these in the meantime, but I liked them when I was going through my photos and felt it demonstrated  their relationship well, so I used them all. I put them in this page protector, a first time I've used this kind.

{The D journal card is a downladable from here. }

This is the back of that insert. I made it all about my daughter's week home. 

Again, I love this project, becuase it inspires me to take some pictures I normally wouldn't, like the one of my daughter and dad. We went over to my Dad's one day and because of PL, I made sure to take  picture,of the two of them. Without the project motivating me to document her week, I know I wouldn't have, I would have assumed that there would always be time for more pics.

I wanted to use this banner that was part of the Studio Calico PL kit. I had to cut it so it wouldn't go over too much of the photo and don't mind at all that it's split between two pockets, to me it works fine. 

I had so many pics just from Easter, I decided to do an insert for just that.  I used a Design F page protector and just cut the last row off. That way it was layered, showing under the first insert, but still smaller than the weekly spread pages.

The You're a Good Egg card is a free downloadable from here.

{My Dad has always sung that song to my kids, so I was happy to include that snippet on their photo. }

The back side of this insert is more from Easter at home. More PL kit goods, more Paisley Press downloadables. 

And the last page of the week's spread, just miscellaneous ongoings from the week up to Easter Sunday. 

My printer was acting up, that's why you see the line above, almost half way down the photo. I used it as reason to add on a bird from an old bird book and some of the PL kit stuff above the line, as if it was a plan. 

Sadly, my printer completely died afterwards. After many attempts to fix it, I gave up and ordered this printer which I am anxiously waiting for. I did a bunch of review reading etc. before choosing this one, I'll let you know if I agree with the positive reviews. As soon as I get it, I'll be printing non stop, as I've got weeks 14,15 & 16 to catch up on! 

wow

 

I hope you watch it. I hope you share it. You ARE more beautiful than you think.

bits of my weekend

 

Hope you had a good one! 

 

listing some original art on etsy

I've been working on listing some paintings over on my etsy. I'm almost done so they should go live soon. (I wait until they are all listed so that you can see all your choices.) This set is smaller (and therefore, more reasonable priced) vs. the larger, oversized paintings that I often do. Hopefully those of you that have wanted some but didn't have the room on your walls or budget can get some this round.

I'm always making more though, so no worries if small isn't your thing.

Here are some teaser shots :)

I hope they find their way to homes that love them as much as I do! 

{Ed: They're up! www.pamg.etsy.com}

i do love fridays

 

There's just something about Fridays, isn't there? For me, lots of times it's a feeling of relief to have made it through the week. Especially a rough week like this one with the tragedy in Boston. (No words seem sufficient or appropriate on my creative living blog.)

But even on a normal, non horrible news filled week, I start out the week feeling in control of things, and then throughout the week, it seems like I start to feel more and more out of control and more like I'm surviving it- the school mornings, the homework, the laundry, the dinners, the deadlines, the emails owed, etc. I think it is because my life is lacking in structure. Something I've recently really beginning to work on. I used to see structure as inhibiting, but now I'm looking at it differently.

Just last Friday night I watched this video, recommended by Ali:

 

I loved it for so many reasons (hello awesome chalk art) but the main concept that stuck with me was that of Preparation days and Successful days in regards to creative businesses. I'm going to try that. I think it will feel really good to know when I can schedule certain things in, instead of that never sure what I've got going on feeling currently. 

I think Fridays will be "free" days. I started that this week ;).

With all this in mind and more, I sat down this morning to journal. This is what showed up. A little ink on my paintbrush and then I filled it in with acrylic paint. I think it's an appropriate ode to Fridays. 

Happy Friday, xo

home made journal cards

As I've mentioned, I'm participating in Project Life this year. A main part of Project Life is the page protector pockets and filling them with either photos or something else like journaling cards. I showed you some I made previously with washi tape, and here are some I made the last few nights with pen and markers. 

I simply used this pen and doodled on the back of these cards that a friend gave me. 

and then I got out my Copic Sketch markers and had more fun:

Pretty fun and super easy. Can't wait to use them in my project life spreads. Thought maybe some of you doing project life might want to illustrate some of your journal cards yourself too. Put a link in the comments if you do!

new art journaling pages

project life • week 12

Project Life weekly spread March 18-24, 2013

So, the truth is that I had gotten on a roll a few weeks ago and was almost caught up with it all, and then there was Easter, and I went away for Whatever Craft Weekend, and before I knew it 2 weeks had flown by, then another, and I was behind again. But last night, when I started to embellish these already filled pages, I fell right back into a groove. I was relieved, as I had a nagging fear that the train might have come off the tracks. Hooray! 12 weeks completed!

This morning, as I was photographing this week's spread to do this post, this shot literally brought tears to my eyes. It's not a great shot, the lighting is bad, my daughter's eyes are nearly closed etc., but I am thrilled I have it, that this moment was captured. (My daughter surprised my son by being here when he walked up after school, he wasn't expecting her home for Spring Break until the weekend.) I never would have gotten out my phone and taken a picture if I wasn't doing Project Life. Or, in the chance I had, would not have done anything with it more than let it sit on my phone or computer with thousands of other images.

My participating in this project is helping me see the little moments in my life, motivating me to capture them, and then, actually print them and document them for us all. I am feeling very grateful for it. It is everything I'd hoped it be and more.

Since the week had long gone by, I  filled in what I could remember from the week. So really, it's a little sparse on storytelling, but it works. The pictures tell the story fine.

I do love my home made journaling card from washi tape scraps and the tag off my son's new shoes, and his feet :) The other things here are mostly from Studio Calico's Project Life kit. I'm not sure if I've ever really mentioned that I did not buy a "core kit" that they sell for Project Life. In my last Project Life post, I put a bunch of links to the page protectors I bought, and the arrow stickers (above), and I mentioned that I have a hand-me-down binder for right now. I think I'll be moving it to one I purchase later. (More on that and why, when I do it.)

I love the ombré alphabet letters (from Studio Calico kit) on top of my washi tape journal card. The embellishment items are fun. I do love having a place to use those type of items where I really didn't before; I don't use them when art journaling.

For this half of the week I used a different style photo pocket protector,  Design D.

I like the vertical 4x6 photos and may end up using more of these throughout the weeks. I've noticed that many people stay with the same format each week for their pages, which gives the book structure. There are others who intentionally mix it up for creativity. I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, I'm just finding what page works best with the photos that I've got for the week so far, although, I'd like to have a structure of some sort eventually.

And that's it. Now to catch up with weeks 13, 14 & 15. That nagging "you're falling too far behind" feeling returns a little when I realize three weeks have passed, but I'll just have to simplify and get it done!

first cuttings of spring

 

I went out this morning in search of flowers and found the first rose buds and even some fully bloomed flowers for the picking.

It felt so good to be out in the garden enjoying them.

The David Austin's have (and most likely always will be) my favorite roses for their scent and shape and overall antique English garden appeal. Some almost look like Peonies, a favoite flower that I am unable to grow in our climate.

My favorite of those is the Abraham Darby. A close second is the Cecile Brunner bush.

Just look at the detail of the sweet blooming bud:

What's not to love?

I'm not as crazy for the hybrid tea roses, but there were some here when we moved in, and so we have them too.

The Iceberg floribunda rose bush is a favorite in Southern California because they do so well in our climate. For awhile there they were the go to bush for every landscaper it seemed. After growing them, I know why; they grow like weeds, super hardy, thriving even when not in ideal situations.

Always nice to arrange them and have them in the house.

I know Spring has not yet sprung for many of you, this year the weather seems to be particularly weird. In the meantime, I'm sharing this bouquet with you. Close your eyes, burry your nose in them and enjoy...soon, soon, it has to come soon to you too! xo

whatever craft weekend part 2

 

Whatever Craft Weekend is nothing without it's amazing hostesses Meg and Kimberlee. They amaze me, they stayed so calm and collected the entire weekend, welcoming everyone to spend the weekend creating, antiquing, hanging with them and they spoiled us silly.

The spoiling started with the welcoming, hellos, introductions, margaritas and chips and salsa:

Some came alone, some traveled with friends, some met friends from different parts of the U.S. after traveling separately, some friends online met for the first time in person, etc. etc. but by the end, we were a group of 16, no matter what we were when we arrived.

Lots of talking and lots of listening.

Lots of happy sharing.

Meg enjoys her job, can you tell?

Then there was the first of many delicious meals prepared by Kimberlee.

We ate all together at the one giant table.

Amy was super sweet to offer to help Kimberlee whip up and clean the delicious meals, (the attendees were forbidden from clearing a dish).

The spoiling continued with the opening of the swag. I've been to many events with gift bags and swag, Whatever Craft Weekend swag sets a new standard.

The details on the goodies will all be on Meg's post of Whatever Craft Weekend 14 coming soon. Here's just some of it, more was on each person's bed. 

And then, the crafting began...

Meg is such a calm and patient instructor.

And then she busts a move to wake everyone out of their food coma.

Ok, not really.

Maybe.

But everyone does look happily entertained, don't they?

And then it was time to select your fabric...

This pic of the always adorable Ashley sums up how I feel when picking out fabric.

(She also has a great set of recap posts on her blog here.)

Amy and I even picked out some fabric eventually, and I cut it to size, and then we never had a chance to get back to it, (it's a bigger whirlwind a Whatever Craft Weekend than it appears in pictures). It's ok, some future camper will luck into some already cut to size fabrics ;).

A room full of women sewing is fun. (And picture taking and instagramming too.)

I'm pretty sure my last instagram for that night was taken and posted around 1:30pm, when the sewing and creating was still going strong.

And apparently, I set my camera down that night and failed to pick it up again at the house until the very end of Sunday's goodbyes. But for the record, Saturday night looked pretty similar, same crafters at the same tables, different crafts, up till 2:30 am. Seriously.

On Sunday morning, before we headed to the airport together, Meg took photos of the whole group, each attendee and helper (Amy and me) as individuals, and then roommates. Those will be on her Craft Weekend post too. {In this picture, Kimberlee is getting everyone's info down and obviously, she takes that job very seriously :) }

Love this partial group shot that was on my phone, wish everyone was in it!

Seriously? I truly miss everyone, the house, and the fun still.

Part 3 will include the shopping day, I just have to wait until my treasures arrive, they wouldn't fit in my suitcase ;).

Whatever Craft Weekend...are you on the list? I highly recommend it!

{And, for the record, I asked; they use a random number generator in order to be fair to those on the waitlist. each number has equal chance of being picked.}

whatever craft weekend craft house

I've just returned from Whatever Craft Weekend which is held at Meg's Craft House shown above. Insanely awesome, right? The inside is equally amazing, let's check it out, shall we? (Be warned, most of these are phone pics, she's got better pics on her blog.)

The kitchen eating area where the giant table(s) seat all the Craft Weekend attendees for meals. Crazy for the mix and match colorfully painted chairs.

The kitchen from the other veiwpoint...love her awesome collection of globes!

The butler's pantry right off the kitchen.  The storage! and LOVE the artwork by her kids.

 This is another wall in the kitchen.

How awesome is that old metal chore sign?!?

The is the other side of that gorgeous leaded window with awesome photo bomb by Meg's partner in craft weekend crime, Kimberlee.The eating area of the kitchen used to be an enclosed porch, so when remodeled, this window stayed.

The giant room where all the attendees craft the night away. I imagine it was the living/sitting room and dining room in years past.

From the other angle, the sewing and cutting stations.

A better view of that adorable cutting station wall.

Vignette in the sewing area, photos by Meg.

The treat bar in the crafting room.

In the entry area, craft supply storage.

The downstairs powder room with the sweetest art on the walls done by her 5 children.

The front stairs. (Meg's prints of her photos. She has a shop too.

The back stairs with her charming globe chandelier.

In the upstairs landing.

The upstairs guest bath. I love her use of gray throughout the house.

Like in this guest bedroom with gray walls, yellow and white striped floors. Perfection.

Meg has an amazing collection of vintage quilts, above is just one.  I think each bed (16) has it's own. She's taken her time and collected each one at a reasonable price over the years. So inspiring.

A guest bedroom... with her super sweet embroidery hoop art.

More guest beds in the world traveler room.

Although I rememebered to at least these with my phone, time got away and I missed so much. I'll just have to go back one day ;). See some more over here on Meg's blog.

What a house! It was built in 1903 I believe, and the owner had it moved with logs and donkeys to it's current location way back when!!!! It's awesome, and I loved every inch of it. You know how you see photos of things but in person they disappoint? Not one bit with this house, the photos do not do it justice. I hope you're on the Whatever Craft Weekend Wait list so you get to see it yourself one day.

More about the weekend in the next post!

back from the whirlwind

Hello!

I'm back from the whirlwind weekend I spent with all the wonderful women above at Whatever Craft Weekend. (Wow. That was a lot of words that start with w.)

Meg is awesome, no doubt about it!

Of course, I have so much to share about it...this time I even took some photos! I hope to get them on the blog tomorrow. For now, I'm going to be spending some much needed time with Hef here (and get him off screens of any kind):

and doing laundry, grocery shopping, making dinner, re-opening my etsy and unpacking.

I do have a few treasures from antiquing (before the Whatever Craft Weekend antiquing day that will be in that post) that came home with me to share:

A few ironstone pieces, a tiny jackknife, a number two and a pepper shaker to replace the one I broke before I left town.

Some vintage sacks and linen needed for an upcoming project.

Some vintage patches that seemed too appropriate for the weekend to pass up. I'll use them making one of Amy's style bags or belts or camera straps.

Some vintage needlepoint pictures, trim, teatowel, chenille poinsettias and...

 the most special find of all (unless I find out it's a reproduction and not an antique) the bird sewing clamp/pincushion.  

Ok, off to try to catch up on life around here...hope you had a great weekend!

Off on a little adventure

recently downloaded

Suddenly, I am feeling a little less intimidated by technology. It's probably largely due to my continued learning at the hands of my computer tutor Sarah, but certainly also a change in my attitude must play a part.  I'm open to trying vs. shutting down my mind at the mere thought. Those that embrace it seem to be having a lot of fun with it, and I want to be able to have that kind of fun too...enough that I'm willing to keep at it, even though it doesn't come easily. I thought I'd share what I've recently downloaded and started using in case you might be interested too. (I use an iPhone 4S and mac computers, not sure if these apps are for every device or not.)

The three photos above were taken with my phone and altered with an app called Typic:

Typic App from Typic on Vimeo.

 

 

The two photos above were altered with another app called PicFrame.

But one of my favorite new apps is walkjogrun. Here's a screen shot of a walk with my daughter last week (she's training for a 1/2 marathon, thus the long walk...I'm too out of shape to run, thus the walk vs. jog :) )

It's a great way to track your exercise, even has options to select hike/hills/bike etc. So far I have only planned out a trail before going or started the gps when I began and it tracked my route, but just using those two features has been super fun and a bit of motivation to exercise. (Which says a lot for the app!)

Another non photo related app I've downloaded is Feedly because she told me to, and she is much more tech knowledgeable than I. (Since Google Reader is stopping service soon, there's a need to replace it if you ever used it for blog reading.) However, before I downloaded Feedly to replace Google Reader, I had downloaded bloglovin' and was liking it, so I think I'll try them both for a bit to see which I prefer. The truth is, I rarely checked into Google Reader, so I'm not sure how much I'll use either of these apps, although ideally, I'd like to use them and see more of what's going on out in the blog world. (On this post Mary Ann describes why she likes Feedly better than bloglovin'.)

This app could be fun where you live: rumgr . I didn't take to it, but you might, it looks like it has a lot of potential to be useful. 

And, another favorite new app is the app for JoAnn's fabrics- I know, what? But hey, when standing in the checkout line all I have to do is click on the app and it opens up at least two coupons they scan in addition to any paper coupons you might have, I get excited. I never seem to remember paper coupons, but I always have my phone with me. Wish Michael's crafts would follow suit...have any of you tried to download extra coupons on your smart phone for Michael's and had it take forever? Not fun. 

Oh, and not new at all, but my favorite app, and the app where all these edited photos were posted in the first place...ya, you know...instagram...I do love that app. (user name pamgarrison).

Any favorite new apps you'd like to share? We're open to hearing about them...for today anyway, until I reach my tech info overload. Baby steps, I just keep taking baby steps. :)

project life • week 11

 

Here's my Project Life spread for week 11, March 11-17, 2013.

As I've said before, I'm really glad I decided to attempt this project this year. I'm very pleased I'm sticking with it too!

 

This week I downloaded these printables to use in a couple pockets. I just printed them on my everyday desk printer, which is what I print my photos on as well. I've used this printer for every photo in my PL this year, and I've used this photo paper. However, I did just buy some of this photo paper to see if I prefer it. I think printer paper is one of those things that I'll have to try a bunch of different types to see what I like best, since printing photos is really pretty new to me, (I didn't want that to stop me from doing the project, so I just am going for it now, even though I may prefer something else in the long run). Keeping the focus on making it do-able for me.

Someone recently asked me what page protectors I'm using. I bought this variety pack at the start to give myself options. But then I saw another big variety pack so bought it too. The way my brain works, if there are options, I usually want to have them in my supplies on hand, then I feel I've got all the bases covered and can create in any way I want, it's not necessary though, to have it all, just the way my mind works, and like I said, I'm trying to make this project as easy as possible for me to stick with it. Getting it done is my priority above all other concerns or wishes I might have with it. 

On this week's spread, the left side is Page Protector F series specifically (included in one of the big variety packs I bought). and the right side is the more traditional Page Protector A.

As I mentioned last time, I screen-shoot a lot of texts with my daughter to include her life at college in our family album. This week, it dawned on me that I could change the colors when editing in iphoto since I don't particularly care for the usual text screen appearance. Just one of those, "um, duh" moments.

I used my favorite white pen to write on the journal card and circle the "Happy" flair.

Oh, and looking at this photo I can see that I'm not quite done. Since the bottom right pocket is a 4x6, but I've used two 3x4 pictures, I'm going to stitch a line down the center on my machine to keep the photos in place. Then this week will be done and I'll be onto the next :)! 

I hope I've answered those that had questions. Please feel free to ask in the comments if not. As I am just beginning this project this year, I'm doing lots of learning on the go too, so am happy to share what I've found to work and not work for me so far. I'm glad some of you have decided to jump in this year too. I'm enjoying the challenge of a whole new type of play.

a change of plans

 

Remember the scraps from a few posts ago (that many of you were kind enough to give feedback on, thank you for that) ? Well, after playing around with them for a bit, I ended up going a different route. (if you follow me on instagram you already know about this change of plans and if you commented there, thank you, too)

I took the scraps and appliquéd them onto an old piece of fabric that has faded remnants of a cross stitch pattern. You can see it in blue if you look closely:

I love the idea of using up all the bits and scraps and remants of crafts gone by.

Still love the scraps together:

You can see, I didn't worry too much about clean or hidden sewing ;).

I simply laid it out, then pinned and machine stitched away. Here they are in the planning stage:

Unfortunately, I didn't look at this photo before stitching, because I prefer the E this way above to the taller one I created when sewing different pieces on...but of course, it doesn't really matter.

After stitching the letters onto the front piece of fabric, I sewed on a label that I rediscovered recently onto the back piece. I ordered them years ago from namemaker.com .I remember being disappointed that the labels were broken up, and not one continuous ribbon, but the single is perfect for this type of project.

Once the front and back pieces were done, I sewed the three sides together and inserted a down pillow purchased at IKEA. Then I simply slip-stitched the 4th edge closed by hand. Super easy pillow, but love that there is not another one exactly like it anywhere!