September Blue

Project Life: Week 16 + Freebie

I hope your Week 16 was a great one! My week had it's ups and downs, but I am happy to say that it ended on a high note. I had a bit of a personal setback in a design opportunity that I really hoped to be part of. Unfortunately that was not meant to be. Sometimes disappointment can get the better of people. Sometimes it can empower them. I chose to be empowered. So instead of hanging up my Wacom Tablet and pen, I decided to push forward and keep on creating & designing. It makes me happy. It relaxes me. It's what I do best. A sneak peek of some papers I am working on are in this week's layout:

This summer I am taking part in a blog hop and have started to create a mini kit that will be available as a free download for my contribution to the event (more details on that in a future post). Instead of using paper from the Clementine or Cobalt Core Kit for the title, I used one of the papers I am creating for the kit. The paper is by no means complete-I still have some distressing to do, but by including it in this layout, it gives me motivation and provides a teaser for you of what's to come! The color of the Word Art Title Tag coordinates with the Cobalt Collection. You can download tags for both collections by clicking the link below.

Download SeptBlue_Week16

This week's layout uses Design A and the 6x12 divided page protectors. 

The plaid paper in the photo above is also paper I have been working on for the blog hop. Again, I still have distressing to do, but I am loving the way it is turning out! It reminds me of a pair of plaid shorts one of my boys wore when he was a toddler :) The journal card in the middle pocket is one I made myself. Be looking for a new set of Four by Six Journal Cards in the next week!

I was glad I had a few more photos to scrap from during the week rather than just photos from the weekend. Chris was gone all week and I do not sleep well at all when he isn't around. I think it goes back to when he was flying helicopters and would be gone on deployment-I was both the mom and the dad, taking care of everything from runny noses to rotating tires on the car-always aware of every little bump in the night. You would think that with the kids out of the house I could relax, but that is not the case. I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep each night while he was gone! I snapped the photo "after midnight" with my iPhone one night (of course) when I was tossing and turning. Because we go by a 24-hour clock instead of 12-hour clock using AM or PM, the midnight hour in Europe registers as "0." I couldn't resist taking a photo of that!

I liked what I did with the left half of the Design A Page Protector-I used it for photos and journaling to document one event. Liela Talka is a European-wide event that means "The Big Cleanup." It just happens to coincide with Earth Day. It is basically a big community spring cleaning of the outdoors! The Public Affairs Office at the Embassy organized a cleanup of the grassy areas that surround the Embassy. Saturday morning Chris and I worked for a few hours and helped with the effort. Afterwards the Marines had a BBQ and we hung out at the Marine House with friends listening to music from the 80s Hair Bands. It was a great day to be outside!

Have a wonderful Week 17. I know ours started out great. We took the dogs to the beach for the very first time. I can't wait to scrap those!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative

Project Life: Week 15 + Freebie

Before I get into Week 15, have you seen Becky's video for new Project Life plastics that are coming in July? Check it out on the YouTube video below! I am soooo excited about all of it! Three cheers for 4x4 pockets!

 

Update on my 2012 New Year's Resolution(s): I am taking Kayla Lamoreaux's "Finding Your Photo Flow" Class over at JessicaSprague.com. I am so excited about this class. I really need to get a grasp on the number of photos I take and come up with a system of downloading, tagging, organizing & storing them on my computer. I'll post periodic updates to let you know how it is all going!

Okay onto Week 15. The layout is small, but I like it! Quick and simple!

I know I posted the Word Art Titles for Week 15 in a quick post last week, but you can download them again by clicking the link below. I used Design A and the 6x12 divided page protectors and a combination of papers from both the Clementine and Cobalt Core Collections.

Download SeptBlue_Week15Titles

My "Better late than never" photo is of a box that was delivered through our mail system. Nice isn't it? Back in the beginning of March I ordered decorations for our Beach Party we were having at the end of the month. Given that I ordered the stuff 3 weeks before the party, I figured that was plenty of time for it to get here. Boy was I wrong! For several weeks our mail was being routed through Istanbul which brought delivery of bulky packages down to a trickle.  There is only one or two flights a week to Riga from Istanbul, but by the looks of my box, you would think it traveled by rickshaw! But there is good news! Our mail is now going through Stockholm and there are daily flights from there to Riga which means our mail will get here much faster. And that has already proved to be true. I received a box in the mail yesterday that was shipped from the States on April 10! Six days-I think that is a record!

Although the temperatures need to warm up just a little bit more, spring has sprung here in Riga. We know this because all of the restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs are constructing their outdoor patios and opening them for business! On Saturday Chris and I strolled through Old Town and stopped for lunch at one of our favorites-No Problem. It felt so good to get out into the fresh air! (I got a new "do" this week as well. Totally happy with it. It's now my new FB profile pic!)

Saturday was also the 20th Anniversary of the Latvian Navy. There were several navy ships from Latvia and other countries in port for the celebration. After lunch, Chris and I walked off our food and drink and went to the port to tour some of the ships. Good day!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

Project Life: Week 14 + Freebie

Nothing much happened at the beginning of Week 14, but it ended on a high note! Chris had a 4-day weekend and we took a little trip to Vilnius, Lithuania. He's been super busy at work lately and we just needed to get away for a few nights. My layout for Week 14 documents the trip.

I know I posted the Word Art Titles in a quick post last week, but here they are again! Click the link below to download them. Designs A, B and the 6x12 divided page protectors were used.

Download SeptBlue_Week14

Embellishments in this layout were kept to a minimum. I would rather focus on the photos than worrying about the enhancements! 

Since I so many photos I wanted to put in the layout, I needed sacrifice using too many journal cards. But that didn't mean I was sacrificing my journaling! In the 4x3 photos above and below I did my journaling in Photoshop before I printed the photo. 

Other than reserving a hotel room, we went to Vilnius without any plan. We didn't have a schedule, didn't know what we were going to see-we were just kind of winging it. By not having a plan or being tied to a schedule allows you to just stumble upon little treasures and finding them yourself instead of following a guidebook. This is what happened when we came across Literatu Gatve. We accidentally walked down this street and I fell in love with it! It's a street that has a permanent outdoor art gallery dedicated to past and present writers and artists that left their mark on the city. There are over 100 pieces of art-mixed media, drawings & paintings-all from local artists-displayed on the walls along the street. The photos above show some of the works displayed. We walked down the Literatu Gatve several times during the day and the evening. It was such a picturesque little street. I love that we found this treasure together!

Instead of labeling some of my photos with tags or stickers, I labeled the photos in Photoshop before I printed them. 

Again, more journaling on the photo. Vilnius seemed to have a big Italian influence. The city was full of Italian restaurants, Italian bakeries, shoppes and of course Catholic churches (beautiful churches). Fiorentino's was a restaurant located around the corner from our hotel. The chef is from Tuscany and the decor in the place made me feel like I was in Italy! The food was fantastic! I would love to go back and visit this restaurant in the summertime. Our waitress told us they have outdoor seating behind the restaurant in a beautiful courtyard. She took us back there, and although it was cold and dark, I could imagine how beautiful it would be in the summer with flowers tumbling over their containers from the balconies that surrounded the courtyard. 

It was a great getaway. I can't wait for our next adventure!

Project Life: Weeks 14 & 15 Title Word Art FREEBIES

I have been having some computer issues over the past that I believe are due to the 20,000+ photos I have in iPhoto! Instead of working on PL, I have been doing some quick re-organizing of iPhoto and moving photos off of my Mac to an external hard drive. This is obviously taking a bit more time than expected, so I wanted to let my readers know that you can expect my Week 14 and 15 to be posted together by next Monday or Tuesday! However, I thought I would post the Word Art Titles for both weeks now so you don't have to wait! Click the links below each set of photos to download. Each zip file contains png files for both titles that will coordinate with both the Clementine and Cobalt collections. Thanks for your patience!

Download SeptBlue_Week14

 

Download SeptBlue_Week15

Project Life Week 13 + Freebie

I kinda lost my creative mojo yesterday so my layout wasn't posted like it usually is on a Monday. To be honest, even though the layout is complete (well, almost, but more on that later), I still haven't found it yet. Maybe the two big events at our house this week sucked it all out of me or maybe it was because I wasn't happy with the way my pictures turned out from Saturday night (more on that later too!). But just because the creative wheels weren't spinning was no reason not to work on my Project Life. That is the beauty of this system. You can be as creative or uncreative as you want.

This week I used products from the Cobalt Core Kit along with Page Protectors B and G. You can download this week's word art titles by clicking the link below.

Download SeptBlue_Week13

I mentioned above that we had two events at the house this week. An Admiral was in town and Chris hosted a dinner in honor of visit. There was a mixture of 12 American & Latvian military officers in attendance and the occasion was catered by Restaurant Line 36 in Jurmala. I met the restaurant's chef, Lauris, at one of the Latvian cooking classes last fall I attended and he was more than happy to cater the event! I was a bit disappointed because I wasn't able to be there though. There are times when Chris hosts dinners at the house and I just need to disappear (who wants to stick around and listen to all that talk anyways?). So I went out to dinner with my friend Anna, had a mojito and a few glasses of wine and great conversation. We haven't gone out in a while and it felt good to reconnect with her! 

The rest of the week was spent prepping for our beach party Saturday night. Several weeks ago I ordered awesome decorations for the party as well as a fun tropical skirt for the event. The mail system here has been unbelievably slow lately and it's been taking stuff 3-4 weeks or longer to arrive from the States. It's driving me crazy!!! Thursdays seem to be a big mail day and when we got a note saying we have a box, I was jumping for joy! Good news and bad news...

The skirt I ordered from Title Nine came in (along with a bunch of Mary Kay stuff I ordered), but the decorations did not. Grrr!!! My friend Robyn said "Well at least you'll have something to wear and your make-up will look good!" (she cracks me up). That may be true, but what was I supposed to do about decorations for this party?

Cricut to the rescue!

Instead of using my Thursday to scrapbook with the girls, I was making plumeria flowers with the Cricut machine. A lot of them. I had them hanging from door frames, light fixtures and the fireplace. They worked out great! I wish I had more photos of them, but I don't...

...why? Well, all of the photos I took of the evening I took with my iPhone. I know I have raved about the pics I get from my iPhone, but the iPhone isn't the best in low light. I should have taken the time to run upstairs and get my point and shoot, but with everything going on that night, I hadn't a moment to spare! So, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, this spread isn't totally complete. I am waiting for several of my friends to forward me some photos from the evening and when they do, I will print them and place them in the 6x12 divided page protectors. Once I get those printed, I will include them in a future post!

I wanted to make a horizontal, bi-fold journal card to journal about the night. The photo above shows what I did. And the photo below shows how I placed it in the slot.

The night was a blast! We had invited the Attaché community as well as several friends from the Embassy. The foreign diplomats weren't sure what to expect, however! The Russian Attachés were a little confused on the dress for the evening (totally tropical). They kept calling Chris' secretary asking for clarification. But once they arrived they all had a good time! Lots of photos were taken by the palm tree and hanging garlands. I got a letter from the wife of the Swedish DATT saying how much they enjoyed the evening and how nice of a change it was from the formal receptions we usually attend!

In typical diplomatic protocol, the Attachés stayed for about two hours and left, but the Americans hung out for a while! We moved furniture around, cranked up the music and turned the living room into a dance floor. Beach balls were bounces and the margaritas were flowing. We had a great time dancing the night away! Again, I will post more photos when I get better copies from my friends!

Whew! I am so glad last week is over though! This week (week 14) marks the beginning of Candice Stringham's "Oh Shoot" Photography Class over at JessicaSprague.com. I've been wanting to take this class for a few years now and am looking forward to learning more about getting out of auto mode on the camera! 

Have a great Week 14 everyone!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

 

 

Project Life Week 12 + Freebie

Week 12 had me taking more "Pictures of the Day" by following the suggested daily photo ideas by FatMumSlim. The list Chantelle puts together every month helps a lot when I have those weeks where there is not much going on. The suggested POTD's can really make you think about the little things that surround your daily life and are a part of your routine you may overlook because it is "not that interesting" to photograph or journal about. And it's these little things that Project Life is all about, right?

This week I am using the Clementine Collection with Design A and Design G page protectors. You can download this week's Word Art titles by clicking the link below:

Download SeptBlue_Week12

I am finding the Design A and Design G protector combination is my "go to" two-page spread. I think it is a perfect combination of horizontal and vertical slots and it isn't an overwhelming amount of spaces to be filled. I really had fun incorporating Instagram photos in my layout this week. One of the POTD's was "the kitchen sink." Now normally there isn't a whole lot to talk about when it comes to the kitchen sink. It is just a reminder of a chore that I hate to do and like most people, I pack everything but the kitchen sink when I go on vacation. I just want to leave the thought of it behind. So when I saw this subject as a POTD, I thought it was weird...at first...but then I got to thinking how the kitchen sink we have here in Latvia is not something that friends and family would be envious of back home in the States. The truth is I hate it. The main reason why?

There is no garbage disposal.

It is just one of those things they don't do here in Latvia and it drives me crazy. Plates need to be scraped into the garbage can. The drain tends to clog when bits of food accidentally make it into the sink. I just don't understand why this modern-day piece of kitchen technology hasn't made it to this part of the world. It was like that when we lived in Ukraine, too. I remember there our housekeeper would flush the kids cereal down the toilet. Gross. Garbage disposals people! They're a good thing.

The tab on the photo(s) above and below are from the digital version of the Clementine Core Kit. I simply printed them off in different sizes, cut them out and mounted them to the photos. Another POTD was "before and after." Dustin sent a box with some things I requested from the good ol' U.S.A. a month ago and it finally arrived this week (don't even get me started on how slow our mail has been coming lately). Inside was tea from Teavana. Love me some Teavana. It's the Starbucks of tea. My favorite is the Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls combined with the Rooibos Tropica Tea (I am also loving their Relaxation Tea Blend-it smells soooooo good). My before and after photo is of the Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls. They start out as tiny little balls but when they are steeped in hot water, they come "alive," and unroll,  looking like something you'd find washed ashore on the beach. But don't let looks fool you! It is a little cup of heaven in the middle of the day!

My favorite find this week was this awesome Margarita glass! It's HUGE! Our "Farewell to Winter, skip spring, Bring on Summer, Mad for Margaritas in March, Beach Party" is this Saturday. I am not sure if I will be drinking from this or using it as a decoration! By the way, this photo and the ones above were taken with Instagram. I re-sized and printed the small photos to 2.5" square and the larger one to 3.5". I am lovin' Instagram!

Finally, I made sure to use some of the FourbySix Journal Cards I created earlier in the week on my layout. If you missed that post, you can download my new line of journaling cards here. Just keep reading that post and there are links at the bottom to download your free cards!

Have a great Week 13 everyone!

This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

Freebie : FourbySix Journal Cards

By now you all know what a fan I am of using the Project Life method to document our daily lives. As the weeks go by I am finding myself journaling a lot more. So much more that there are many times where the 4x3 Journal Cards or Bi-Fold Journal Cards included in the Core Collections are not quite large enough for the stories I want to tell. A 4x6 journal card would be perfect, but alas, there are none. Sure I can unfold one of the Bi-fold Journal cards and write across the card, but that means writing over the crease and when the card is unfolded, it is not a true 4x6. That drives me crazy. Hmmm...so what is a Project Lifer with digital design skills to do? 

Create her own.

Introducing FourbySix.

 

What do you think? I know I am pretty happy with the way they turned out! Each set includes 8 high-resolution png files ready for you to use them in your digital or traditional Project Life albums. For a digital album, simply open the png file then drag and drop into your digital scrapbook page. For a traditional album, check out the photos below for tips and tricks on printing them out on your home computer.

I decided to print out all of the cards, just so I would have them on hand when I needed them. I opened a new 8.5x11 document in Photoshop and arranged three of the FourbySix Journal Cards within that document, then printed. I repeated this process until I had all of them printed out. (I use the Epson R1900 printer with Staples Brand Double-Sided Matte Paper).

For the life of me I cannot find a trimmer that will cut a perfectly straight line. And believe me, I have tried them ALL-every type of Fiskars, Tonic, Cuttlebug, etc. My favorite of them all was the original Fiskars trimmer (the gray one), but I totally wore that one out a long time ago and was never able to find a replacement. I got very good using a straight-edge ruler and an X-acto knife when I went to art school, so I am using those tools to cut out my cards. Now many of you may feel comfortable using scissors to cut these out, but when it comes time to round the corner, you may not get that nice, rounded edge. So what I do is cut all of my straight lines first.

When you cut all of your straight edges first, you are left with a little bit of white in each corner like in the photo above. To get rid of it, simply use a corner rounder! Super easy!

Tada! FourbySix Journal Cards, just waiting to have a story written on them. Or typed...

I haven't typed and printed any of my journaling yet in my album. I thought I would give it a try using the FourbySix Horizontal Card with Dots. I selected the font Caecilia LT Std, Roman 10pt with an 18pt leading and typed right onto the png file, then printed it! I used the technique from above to cut it out. It worked perfectly! The settings for the font that I chose may not work for every font. You will have to play around with the settings to get the text to line up correctly on the lines. 

So there you have it. FourbySix Journal Cards. And they are yours for FREE! I really like this little series and will do more of them in the future, with different themes of course! Click on the links below to download your journal cards. Enjoy!

Download SeptBlue_4x6Vert

Download SeptBlue_4x6Horiz

 

Design Project: A Crabby Invitation

The Winter Blues are starting to set in here in Riga. Watching the news from back in the States is making me so jealous of the wonderful weather friends and family are enjoying on the East Coast! This is the first year in a very long time that we aren't participating in the seasonal ritual of packing the car and heading down to Hudson, Florida (on the Gulf Coast of The Sunshine State) and enjoying Spring Break at Chris' mom's place. Nope...this year instead of sun & sand, we have rain and still a bit of snow. Instead of bathing suits and suntan lotion, we are wearing winter coats and Chapstick. We can't complain too much though. After all, we are living in Europe which is not something many Americans get the opportunity to do. But warmer weather had been on our minds in the Sill household, so to help us shake those Winter Blues, we decided to plan a "Farewell to Winter, skip spring, Bring on Summer, Mad for Margaritas in March, Beach Party" party at our place for the Attaché  community and a few of our friends. It's a mouthful, I know, but I wasn't sure what else to call it! 

Usually when we send out formal looking invitations from Chris' office whenever we have an event at the house. But as a graphic designer, I am a firm believer in that packaging sells. And a formal invitation can mean the gathering could be a bit on the "stuffy side," which is something I want to avoid for this party. If the invitation is fun, creative and upbeat, it can set the mood for the event. I wasn't sure how appropriate a hand-made invitation would go over in the diplomatic world, but knowing the personalities of those invited, Chris gave me his "ok" and the creative juices started flowing:

It's a hybrid invitation-a combination of digital and traditional scrapbook elements. All cardstock used is by Bazzill Basics, the crab is from the Cricut "Life's A Beach" cartridge and the word art and lime slices are of my own design. It is a tri-fold invite that measures 4x4 when folded and 4x12 when opened up. Below is the front of the invitation: 

The photo below shows the invitation when the front of the card is opened (by the way, "hot balzams is a warm winter drink, similar to Germany's Gluwein, or hot, spiced wine).

Below is a snapshot of the invitation opened.

Invites went out earlier this week and so far the response has been great! It is shaping up to be a fun night! Now if only the decorations will get here on time...

 

Project Life : Week 11 + Freebie

It feels great to be back on schedule with my weekly Project Life posts! I am really enjoying the process and glad I made the commitment to this method of documenting our lives. It's going to be pretty cool, come the end of the year, to look through our album and refer to my blog entries and realize what an amazing life we have-even if I am just documenting the boring day-to-day stuff! 

Here is what was going on in Week 11:

You know the routine: Click below to download this week's Word Art Titles! This week's layout showcases the Design G and Design A page protectors.

Download SeptBlue_Week11

The week started and ended on a social note! There was a new arrival in Chris's office this week and we had his family, as well as a few other friends, over for dinner on Sunday. My friend Ginny told me about an absolutely sinful dessert to try: a layer of chocolate cookie dough, topped with a layer of whole Oreo cookies, topped with a layer of brownie batter-baked and then served with vanilla ice cream! OMGosh...so much for the diet! It was delish! I will be posting the recipe later in the week, but below are a few snapshots of the process:

Although we had a great start to the beginning of the week, I still wasn't feeling 100% healthy and ended up having to go to the doctor on Monday. The Embassy doctor was out of town all week and that meant I had to visit a local doctor in town.

I was not looking forward to it all.

I remember living in Kiev, Ukraine and having to visit a local doctor. Bad experience-had to bring my own table dressings, the doc didn't speak very good English-it just wasn't pleasant. I didn't know what to expect here in Riga. But you know what? It was totally fine-unbelievably efficient! I had a 2:30pm appointment and when I arrived there was no waiting. The only paperwork I had to fill out was a form needing my name, birthdate, age, local address, email and phone number. That was it. Dr. Karina spoke perfect English, was very thorough and diagnosed me with bronchitis. She explained to me all of the meds I needed and wrote me a prescription to take to the Aptieka.

Oh no...a visit to the pharmacy. That uncomfortable feeling of the unknown set in again. Which Aptieka to go to? Do they speak English? How expensive are meds here? Will I have a long wait? Where will I park?

Again, it was a piece of cake (or chocolate chip cookie, Oreo, brownie dessert). The Aptieka was right across the street from her office, there was no waiting and no paperwork to fill out. The Pharmacist just grabbed the items from the shelves gave me directions on their use and I was on my way. Why can't it be this easy in the U.S.? I was done with everything by 3pm!

I took a photo of the meds that you can see in the second photo of this post (click on the image to make it bigger). When it came time to journal about it, I wanted to use a 4x6 journal card (I had a lot to say about this experience), and forgot there are none in the kits, so I went with a bi-fold journal card instead. You will notice in that second photo I mounted the card to the top of the protector. I've been doing this a lot lately. I am just worried about the wear and tear on the album and card if it is always being pulled in and out in order to read the inside of it. Mounting it to the front of the protector makes the journaling easier to access!

The bronchitis was taking a lot out of me. I really had very little energy to do anything. I did manage to play around with my iPhone photo apps a little bit, though. I took the above pic with Instagram. I've been working with Hipstamtic a bit more this week as well, but I am not sure if I like it as well as Instagram. Hipstamatic is a little more labor intensive-you have to know what kind of effect you are aiming to get by using a variety of lenses films and flashes before you snap the photo. So really the end result can sometimes be a surprise. It's hit or miss, but I am still playing around with it.

The week ended of course with Saint Patrick's Day! Almost a month ago, my trainer Lisa and I decided to go alcohol-free for 30 days. Of course that didn't work out for me as planned due to my trip to Germany, but since I've been back I haven't had a drop to drink-and I feel so much better because of it! Because I wasn't drinking, it meant Chris had a designated driver for St. Patty's Day. We started the night out by taking part in the dinner club the CLO at the Embassy puts together each month at a local restaurant. There were probably 20 of us altogether and had dinner a 3 Pavāru Restaurant (translated it means 3 Chefs). Although the food was good, both Chris and I didn't think it was worth the 31Ls each (that is $62 per person!). But the ambiance was nice, those who were in attendance were a lot of fun, the conversation was great and it was nice to be able to sit and talk to those folks from the Embassy that I rarely get the chance to! I snapped the photo above using Instagram. The decor in the restaurant was eclectic and I loved the lampshade chandelier! After dinner we went to several pubs where Chris enjoyed Guinness and Irish music. We got home at 3am and then Skyped with my sister and her husband until 3:30! Never again. We are getting too old to be out that late! 

Thanks for reading! I have a few surprises planned for this week! Keep checking back to see what they are! Have a great Week 12!

This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

Project Life Week 10 + Freebie

I am happy to say that I am caught up with my Project Life layouts! Whoo hoo! It feels so good to be back on track! I had a "Project Life Epiphany" the other day. Next time I am away and have my computer with me, I'll just do digital pages that week and print them when I get home. That way I won't fall behind in my PL weekly posts. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I am so glad I have the digital versions of the Clementine and Cobalt Core Kits! I think they are the perfect solution in those situations when I am not able to scrapbook my photos in the traditional way!

Download this week's Word Art Circles by clicking the link below.

Download SeptBlue_Week10

I spent this week playing "catch up" from being away last week. You know how it is. You return from vacation and you have a list of things to do: mail to sort through, groceries to shop for, laundry to do, suitcases to unpack. And I couldn't forget that I had photos to download, print and scrapbook from our trip. Needless to say I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked during Week 10, but I am showcasing the ones I did manage to snap:

I haven't purchased the horizontal journaling cards add-on kit that Becky released a few weeks ago. I keep forgetting to. So in order to accommodate those times when I do need 4x3 horizontal journal card, I always turn to the plain grid card. To jazz it up a bit, I add a 1" strip of coordinating paper on either side of the card. I did this on the cards that are below Zoe and Baron's photos.

My "kids". That is Zoe with her "baby". She was cuddled up with it, taking a nap in the sunbeams shining through the living room window. She sensed that I was trying to take her picture and suddenly she thought it was playtime-hence the bear's foot in her mouth. Baron was just waiting for his turn to play with the "baby". The two of them really go at it and play "keep away" with it from each other. I swear I have toddlers.

I was also trying to keep on top of my "iShot That!" iPhone Photography class this week. The black and white photo of me is one I took with the PhotoBooth app, just one of the apps featured in the class. What a fun app to play with! I thought this pic turned out pretty good and decided it was "scrapbook worthy". I want to do more with this app and take photos of me & Chris, as well as with some friends. It is going to be a very social weekend for us, so I am thinking I will have plenty of opportunity!

Do any of you Pin? I am a Pinterest fanatic. I have friends tell me that I am one of the few people they know who will actually make some of what is seen and pinned on Pinterest. The photo of the opened-face sandwich is a lunch I made this week that was inspired by a Pin. I found sun-dried tomato, pita-like bread at Maxima (one of our local grocery store chains here in Riga) and spread a little bit of roasted pepper low-fat Philly Cream Cheese on each half (yes, my Stateside friends, they do have Philly Cream Cheese here-I am not living in a third-world country). I topped it with bean spouts, chopped avocado, chopped Roma tomato and sprinkled it with a bit of salt and pepper. It was really good! (You can follow my boards on Pinterest by clicking the Pinterest circle button near the top of this blog! There is a lot of great inspiration there!)

Once again I used the digital version of the Clementine Core Kit to enhance my traditional layout. the circle tag in the photo above was from the 'extra elements' included in the digital kit. I just printed it, punched it out and attached it to my layout with pop dots. The journaling is referring to the photo below. I had a large duffle bag filled with canned and boxed goods we bought while at the commissary in Ramstein. I took a photo of the contents when we arrived home. Everything was intact and nothing was smashed or broken!

Thanks for reading! My Project Life posts will resume their regular schedule on Monday. Week 11 has been pretty good so far and I look forward to sharing it with you!