That's a Lovely Story

I've been hoarding this piece of tea cup paper for a LONG TIME (it's from American Crafts Soho Garden collection) and it finally paid off!

I used die cuts from the Soho Garden collection and also from Shimelle's Little by Little collection on this layout, along with enamel dots.

I'm so glad I had this paper!

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Let's Stay Home

We rang in the new year at home and it was great. We had snacks and watched movies. Then we live streamed the Disney fireworks at midnight. We didn't even turn on the countdown or the ball drop.

I bought this super cute clock paper a month or two ago and had no idea what I would use it for... but I think this was perfect! It's from Dear Lizzy Stargazer collection.

I used paper from the Turn the Page collection (Pink Paislee) for layers behind the photo.  the ephemera pack and the 30-page sticker book and used bits and pieces for embellishment.

How did you ring in the new year?

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Project Life Weeks 31-40

I swear I plan on doing a better job of sharing my Project Life pages more regularly in 2018... but here are weeks 31-40 of Project Life 2017. I've had it done through week 37 for quite a while but recently got motivated to finish up!

I have some tickets from the mirror maze and will adhere them in the bottom left corner when I get this page printed.

I really love this Amy Tangerine kit!

 I used the collage feature to make the 2 3" x 4" spots in the left bottom corner. Then you insert it as a photo.

This layout about Dollywood will be cut into a 6" x 12" page and insert between weeks 40 and 41.

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October, November, and December Book Report

I had a goal to read 48 books in 2017 and ended up finishing 42 books. I think 48 was a great goal because it pushed me and encouraged me throughout the year. I had 3 books I was still reading and 1 audiobook but am going to count them towards my 2018 goal of 60 books! 48 would have been doable if I hadn't taken a couple months off from reading. I need a stretch goal and 60 is it.

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson was a funny little book. I loved all the little coincidences that happened throughout.

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel was so good... It's about a family's journey to figure out a transgender child... they figure out how to let their child be herself while addressing the whole family's well being.

Bear Town by Fredrick Backman was a bit slow to start but I'm glad I stuck with it because it's SO GOOD. It's about hockey - and yet it isn't. Read it.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a YA novel about a teenage girl that is trapped between two worlds and witnesses a fatal shooting. I don't normally read YA novels but this one kept popping up and getting such good reviews. It was great.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymoon is going to be made into a movie and I can totally see why - it's charming and fun! Eleanor doesn't know that life can and should be more than just "fine" and this story documents how she figures that out. Loved it!

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict is a book I put on my list quite a while ago and it came up in Overdrive for me to borrow. It was so interesting - I had no idea that Albert Einstein's wife played such a big role in his theories (I'm not sure I even know he was married really).

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan was hard to follow at the beginning - so many names! - but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. I have more of his books in the queue on Overdrive.

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell popped up on my radar and I was able to borrow it quickly. I read it very quickly and although I didn't like the ending (!) it was great.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng was so, so good!

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey was SO CREEPY! Like I didn't want to read it before bed, but I HAD to know what was happening. So weird and so good and I want to read more from this author.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is about female spies and it was good and interesting. A bit unbelievable but cool.

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan is #2 in the Crazy Rich Asians series. It was very fast paced and a quick read.

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December Daily Days 26-31

I printed the last couple of pictures and finished up my December Daily yesterday. Last year I did a page every day, but this year I did them in small batches in an effort to not waste printer paper. It worked out well and the stories were still fresh in my mind so I think I'll try this process again in the future.

Day 26 - after Christmas shopping with Mom

Day 27 - lunch with my friend Mel

Day 28 - the treats and scents of Christmas

How pretty is this transparency sheet?!

Day 29 - my phone wallpaper for most of this month. I loved it!

Day 30 - we watched the play "White Christmas" with family

The playbook was literally like 100 pages of ads... I cut out the pertinent pages, taped them together, and glued the cover to the front. It works for me!

Pretty filler page

Day 31 - we went over to Asheville for a few hours and made it just before the snow and ice really started coming down. So glad we made it home - the interstate was shut down and people were stranded!

For the last page, I wrote about our New Year's Eve celebration at home.

December Daily is a wrap!

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Let's talk Planners - and a freebie!

Happy New Year! I spent the day straightening up, finishing products, cleaning up my craft desk, and hanging out with hubby. I also made some Happy Planner stickers!

I started using the Happy Planner last year and I love that it's a disc bound system. That means I can add pages, remove them, add photos, and more. I'm not a big decorator but I do have a ridiculous sticker stash and I plan on using it a little more than I did last year. I need room to write, people! This is a functional planner.

So I'm using two planners this year and made stickers to go with each: a mini Shake it Up Happy Planner that I'm using for fitness (got it at Michael's). I made scale stickers and yoga stickers. I do a weekly weigh in and will add those stickers to the weekly pages. The yoga stickers will be put on the monthly pages on the days I do yoga. It will be neat to see those calendars at the end of the year!

My other planner is the classic Striped Floral Happy Planner for my every day stuff (it was a Hobby Lobby exclusive). I wanted a way to keep up with when I finished books so I'll add the book icon stickers to the bottom section of my planner on the days I finish a book. I've found that my week goes SO MUCH SMOOTHER when I make time to plan my week on Sundays... so I'll be adding these cute "Happy planner" stickers to my Sundays!

I made these stickers a couple of ways and thought I'd share in case you were inspired to make your own. In all cases, I opened the pictures of my planners in the design file so I could use the eye dropper tool to select colors from the planner. Then you have color coordinating stickers!

Scale: I bought some printable scale stickers on Etsy, copied and pasted one scale into Silhouette software, and traced it. I made the scale "no cut" and then drew a square around it for the cut lines.

Yoga: I took a regular cut file from the Silhouette store, made the lines "no cut" and then drew a circle around the yoga girl. I just had the circle lines as cut lines.

Book: same as the yoga girl except I made a square shape around it for the cut lines.

Happy Planner: I just drew this one out of basic shapes! I made a rectangle for the book, added a heart and drew little skinny rectangle boxes for the discs. Again I drew a shape around the whole thing for the cut line.

If you're like me and need a little reminder to schedule some planner time in, feel free to download the Happy Planner cut file for your Cameo! I left it editable so you can change the colors to match your planner if you want!

Do you use a Happy Planner?

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