December Daily 2013 | Planning ahead

Ironically, my last blog post was dedicated to the completion of my 2012  December album.  As you can see, I'm on the ball!!!   I was a little indifferent about jumping on board with December Daily again this year, but Studio Calico put out their 2nd DD kit, and I fell in love with the album.  Lets just say it was purchased very quickly, and I'm happy that it was.  You can watch this video from Ali Edwards to see the contents of the kit.  Also, if you are not familiar with the December Daily concept, hop around her blog to enlighten yourself.  It really is a cool concept and tradition. 

I must say I had a little bit of a hard time taking pictures of my prep work.  I'm using all of the transparent 3X4 cards included in the kit, paired with some pre-made, transparent numbered snowflakes that I posted on Instagram a few weeks back.  It didn't come out very pretty in the pictures but I can envision what the end result will be.

I'm trying to take a better approach this year as well.  Last year I thought I could journal every day, take some pictures every day and send them off to be printed, then on my days off, bring it all together.  Not a strong plan coming from the girl that shoots from the hip on most days.  Also, everyone came down with the stomach flu for days at the beginning of December, which didn't make for great stories.  This year, I'm trying to stick with one story per day, use these handy dandy prompts, and journal each day using the Momento App.  I also purchased a bunch of digital stamps and overlays from Designer Digitals from Cathy Zielske and Ali Edwards.  Super excited about them!

So here is my prep work so far.  Excuse the bad photos.  I'm still trying to master that camera of mine.

Cover.  I kept it simple with some light gold paint from Martha Stewart.  The snowflake is a wood ornament from Michaels.

 My cover page:

 Page one.  My gentle reminder not to get caught up in the stress that people feel during this holiday season.  It is so not worth it and I try hard to keep things lighthearted during December.

Some of my interior pages, not in any order because that would have been too simple for blogger to upload them the way I wanted them to be.  And also, I'm technically challenged today as this is my third attempt to post this.  ;)

 Someone I know is turning 40 on this day.  ;)

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I stitched around some of the 3X4 cards that came n the kit, as well as a favorite paper that I cut down.  The plan is to use small photos in the stitched frames since I was gifted a nice photo printer last year for Christmas.  (Also making it easier this year to stay on track.)

That is it for now.  I must admit, I'm super excited to get this going.  M and J were up early this morning and the tree was decorated by 830am.  That's how we roll around these parts.  :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

J

*please note, I just looked at this on my phone and the photos look very distorted.*

December Daily...better late then never.

Seriously?

It's October and I'm about to share  my December Daily album from last year.

What the what you say?

This was my first attempt at this project as you may remember from this post.

I had, what I thought was a well laid plan to keep up with it every day, but that went in the pooper pretty quickly when everyone came down with the stomach flu.

Then, I apparently forgot that I work in retail,  and we don't have time to  do this every day.

I should have taken a cue from Ali Edwards, being that this project really is her baby, and pre-made my base pages. 

Nope.  I decided to journal every day, take pictures every day, then somehow go back and put it together.

It was May when I finally finished.

Yep.

Scrapping Christmas in May is how I roll.

Not really because it was one of the few things  I have done until lately.

But I digress...

I used a few common things throughout my DD album.

Kelly Purkey's December Daily Kit , Crate Papers Sleigh Ride line and some wood and gold embellishments.  I would link you up, but I forget what I used.  :)

Also,  taking pictures of this project was interesting.

And by interesting, I really mean a colossal mess.

But I'm going to show you anyways.

Try not to judge the poor quality.  :)

So without further adieu, my album:

And that's a wrap!

I have to say when I was done, I was indifferent about whether or not I would take on this project again.

Then I saw this:

Its From Studio Calico and my UPS man delivered it today!

Im ready to do it again.

This time im pre doing some of my pages.

I think... ;)

Merry Almost Christmas even though it's not even Halloween yet!!!

Here's to new beginnings...

Those who know me well, know that 2012 was not my best year.

I struggled with my relationship; really struggled.  Its not perfect yet.  To be honest I'm not sure it ever will be,  but I'm working on being okay with that.

My oldest son was diagnosed with PDD NOS.  It is a form of autism.  His every being has challenged me to be the very, very best person that I can be and I'm not even close to being the mother that I want to be with him

My youngest son is waiting to be evaluated for some developmental delays that could be Autism related as well.  He is busy, crazy, wild and beautiful.  He wakes before the crack of dawn and does not slow down until 7:00pm.  He makes things easy a lot of days and some days not so much.

AND, If you know me REALLY well, you know that I like new beginnings, a fresh start, a do over.

My hope for 2013 is to come out of it happier then I entered it.  To live life with GRACE, to be accepting of who I am as a person and not get caught up in self effacing thoughts.   To not let an image in my head cloud reality.  To not let others opinion of me, or what I think their opinions are of me, be more important than what I know to be true.  To tune out the negative and embrace the positive.

Bring it!



PS...If you are a scrapper, this post might excite you.  I'm totally back on board with Project 12 this year! 

Happy Trails my friends.