project life :: week 13

first off, my thoughts and prayers are with all the runners, families and bostonians. what is this world coming to where something as simple and freeing as a foot race is a target?makes me sick.

this is week 13, i am currently working on week 14 too. this week also includes a "day in the life." 

i feel i say this every week, but what a busy week we had, never feels overwhelming in the moment but putting the layouts together each week makes me relive all the fun. i love project life. this week includes a lot of school related events, including denton's report card. so i included a journal card from the bridgeport design, i relayed a cute story about d, enthusiastically calling europe, "syrup!" so because i usually miss including his writing, i made sure to this week. i asked him to write his name and draw himself, instead he drew our family. love that. they had an egg drop contest at school, and i added studio calico stickers from the march kit on that picture. 

i decided to do a "day in the life," on march 29th. d had had a sleep over with his best bud the night before and then he went 4-wheeler riding that afternoon, it was good friday, just seemed like a good day. i wasn't as time specific as i have been in the past, i just did a brief summary on the events, morning, afternoon and night. i also made my own template and it was an 8 x 10 inch. behind "day in the life," is d's report card. in case you don't know "day in the life," is a prompt from ali edwards for project life. it just is a reminder mostly of what your daily routine is like this point in time. i am trying to remember to do one a month. 

this is the back side of the journaling of the "day in the life." i mixed both small and large pictures and added on little statement of what event was going on. 

for the journal card this week, i combined a journal card into the week title card. i found some cute envelopes at michael's, recollections brand. inside the envelope i journaled on a becky higgins grid card and just slide it into the envelope. i used alphabet sticker that i also found at michael's, they were from snap, simple stories, to write out thirteen. i used a button, "this week," that was from ormolu. on the picture of Denton and james planting seeds i used a rain, rain go away card that was also included in the march studio calico kit. lastly, on the two images of the boys finding their easter baskets, i used a shrinky bird from darcie's heart and home. the little wooden bunny on james's picture was on the clearance bin at paper source in charlotte. LOVE THE PAPER SOURCE.

so that's it for week 13, i hope you are having a good week. 

project life :: week 12

i swear since Denton has gotten home, we haven't stopped moving. he has taken up all my regular "me" time or just my "get my stuff done" time. but of course i wouldn't change it for the world. 

so here is week 12. i have to put the finishing touch on the week 13 layout and then i will have that ready to share. i am actually on track with my project life production, just not with posting them here.

this week james got his first ever hair cut, he's 3! he looks like such a big boy now. i used cathy zielske, tiny templates from designer digitals to create his before and after picture. the little yellow and white striped bag from studio calico contains some of his curls closed it with some weekday washi tape. i used ali edwards' week day cards also from designer digitals to journal our crazy wednesday. the hello card is from the march studio calico project life kit. have i mentioned how much i love those kits, so fun.

james had an heart echo done this week, at his 3 year appt the dr. heard a murmur, turned out to be nothing, his heart is perfect and beautiful. i used my wacom tablet to write that directly on the digital image before i sent it off to shutter fly. i used another 4 x 6 inch card from studio calico kit to create this week's main journaling card. i also used an technique tuesday ali edwards' stamp and some washi tape.

on the right hand side, i used some small sticker from studio calico to write "gator boys" and "king of rebounds" on the pictures directly. the pictures of d with his promised 4-wheeler for being a good boy while dad was deployment, just make me smile, look how happy he is! the heart card and high five were also included in studio calico's march kit. the little yellow heart sticker was also from studio calico. lots of studio calico this week.

well i have to go pull a margarita cheesecake from the oven, look for that recipe on the yummy goodness link. 

up next week :: lots of easter and school related activities. 

project life :: week 11

still playing a bit of catch up but still very much enjoying my new way of project life'ing. by this time last year i am sure i was much further behind. i am very excited to be going away next weekend with some friends for a scrappin' weekend. my plan is to work on denton's baby edition. if i could just find the time to sit down and get through all his baby pictures. 

the big news this week... Denton is finally home! a lot happened this week but in the end, the only thing that really matters is that he is home safe and sound! so needless to say, much of my layout was dictated to his homecoming.

this week was also my spring break. i had a lot of appts that filled the week and they weren't fun but needed. monday, braxton, our golden had emergency surgery and it was found he had colitis. tuesday, i had two veins removed from my leg. i got to spend a lot of time with james, we hung out in my studio for a tiny bit on friday and we also made cookies for dad's homecoming. i used thickers to create the "going" over my leg, i will take a "gone" picture once the bruises are all gone. i used the technique tuesday stamps from ali edwards to create the "welcome home" week card, along with studio calico stars from december. the you + me card i found free on pinterest. unfortunately i can't find the link now, sorry. the "hello sunshine" little flapper came from the march studio calico project life kits.

the pictures of denton's homecoming just make me smile to even look at. i could breathe when the unit marched in. in formation, i used a studio calico sticker that says "here" i added with precision pens that says "finally you are." also used a location wood veneer. i took a longer picture of us back together again, then cut it down to the correct pocket sizes. i made the shirts for the boys and they wear them on homecoming. cut the vinyl on my silhouette, love that machine! in the last image, the freedom motorcycle riders lead the buses to the armory, the front of the building was lined with flags. i have always considered myself a patriot person, i cry every time in church, at parades, when i see marching bands, hearing and see soldiers. i can honestly say i have never been more proud of my husband or our country then i was the day he came home. the little wooden letters are also from studio calico, #proud. 

lastly, although i didn't show a detailed picture of the insert, out of respect for the family, my heart has been very heavy for a dear family in d's class at school. so saturday had extreme emotions. the high of having my best friend and partner coming home, and the extreme low of knowing that my friend had lost the same thing in her life. bill lost his battle with cancer this week. i never knew bill when he wasn't sick, but i could tell at all the school events that we attended together that he loved his family more than anything in the world. you could see home much he loved his wife, i loved that they were very real in their relationship even in his sickness. bill you will be missed. 

i also started a facebook page, please feel free to leave comments, like the page, let me know your thoughts. here is the link. stephanienacedesign

project life :: week 10

playing more catch up.

this was a really busy week as we had a TON of appts. james had his 3 year well check. were they found a heart murmur. this only scares me given the history of the loss of our first son to HLHS, d having a hole in his heart. i am hoping its innocent and we are in the clear with james but we will find out on wednesday this week. the card with his wellness stats also in the march kit from studio calico. 

since d and i both had dentist appts this week, it only seemed fitting to use the small card from the studio calico march kit. he did great at the dentist and has 4 teeth lose. i used thickers for the week ten card. and both boys got special one or one donut date time. i got a special treat, one of my most favorite things. a shamrock shake from somewhere i almost never go McD's. the "heart" happiness is was so from a card in the kit that i cut down to just the banner. 

d's basketball pictures came in this week. i can't believe how big he is. looks so grown up. the top picture in the newspaper clip is my friends and me at the disney marathon weekend. our little town paper wrote the article and it was about local runners. super fun. so those were in a 5 x 7 plastic page protector from becky higgins and a 8 x 10 size.

i started out running the columbia marathon this weekend. d and his class ran it a mile at a time and finished their last mile with their teacher as she finished her marathon. really cool event. i however, did not finish the marathon. the course was crazy hard, i had a back stomach virus that threw me for a loop for a good 2 days. i was worried about my hydration all week, so in the tenth mile i knew i would make myself sick by finishing the whole race so i humbly bailed out at the half. i used a cathy zielske tiny template from designer digitals for the collage picture of d's race. the picture of my husband is actually printed as a t-shirt transfer, i wore that for every race i ran since he left, that's 19 races! journaling cards are from the seafoam project life kit. and the last decorative card is also from seafoam kit with embellishment hearts from studio calico. lastly, the "being together" die cut is from ali edwards 4 x 6 family sentiment collection on designer digital. which i cut on my new SILHOUETTE, another new love of mine. 

so now we are all caught up. this week's most exciting news is my husband is HOME! safe and sound from a 15 month deployment in afghanistan. in that time i managed to keep myself and the kids alive. i feel very blessed.

have a good week!

project life :: week 9

play catch up this week. last week was my spring break and so i got a little bit off schedule. 

in week 8 i used a 12 x 12 photo of the boys having a sleepover so this week i needed another 12 x 12 to start off the spread. i choose to take a photo of my most prized easter decorations. my mom and gram (her mom) painted these back in the 80's. my mom passed about 3 years ago and these were definitely in my memory vault from my childhood. i am happy that my sister and i didn't fight over them. putting them out each year is bittersweet.

the little tag was from pixel & company and i printed it on vellum. the little bunny is a cute shrink technique from darcie's heart & home. they were in columbia a few weeks ago for the stamp, scrap, art tour. i have some plans to do some fun stuff with the shrink paper. 

the highlight of the week was my new wacom tablet purchase. i love this thing and seriously don't know how i lived life without it until now. the picture with d and the written ouch written on it was done with my wacom. it's so much fun. the picture of more touch boxes coming home says "soon you will be home," was written directly on the photo with a precision pen by american crafts, the home sticker is from studio calico. the "this week card is an ali edwards from designer digitals. the week title card that has all the dates on it was from the studio calico march project life kit. this is my first month getting it and i LOVED it, so worth the money and the waitlist. the hello is the install window from the wacom software, i took a screen grab of that. i thought the typography was fun. we celebrated dr. seuss's birthday with some special cupcakes from sweet. and probably my most favorite image from the week is d's picture of a the bear (or a he spelled it baer). this is the first time that he has written anything other than his name without copying it from a print out or someone else's writing. 

project life :: week 8

last week i think i was on picture overload mode with james's birthday. that i didn't really take that many images this week. 

because of how i decided to create the spread this week, i ended up needing to combine my week title card with my week summary card and i was pretty pleased with the results. i downloaded the cute "love this" card from pixels & company, then i stitched it on top of a becky higgins grid card. i made sure to score the top of the "love this" card so that it would fold open neatly. i used some washi tape on the end of the seafoam card, then i stitched a studio calico, darling dear paper and another seafoam dotted card together, dated it and added the studio calico thought bubble with a thicker 8. 

used the camera + app on my iphone to take the picture of james. love that app! then with a precision pen i wrote "love that kid" on the photo and drew a little border. on the picture of san pants james i added a elle's studio circle tag heart. the picture of d's basketball game i took using slow camera+ app, it's pretty cool for capturing long exposures, i have been wanting to try it at night with car lights and signage. so the picture is intentionally blurry. the metallic S sticker is martha stewart's that i found on clearance. 

so this week i got totally crazy and did the spread with a 12 x 12. the boys had a sleepover and i had found this cute free "like it, Facebook" download from pinterest. here's the link. i actually posted this comment on facebook when i saw the boys sleeping together. put the image and card together in photoshop and sent it off to persnickety prints. 

so that's week 8. naturally week 9 will have a 12 x 12 now. not sure i love that because it doesn't give me a lot of space but it is a nice solution for a week when you don't shoot a lot. 

have a good week.

project life :: week 7

what another busy week we had, love a busy week, makes the time go fast and i don't sit around thinking about how much longer i have to be a single parent. march can't get here fast enough!

on the news front, i got a wacom tablet yesterday and its an understatement to say i don't know how i lived life without it before! love this thing!

our week was busy because there was of course valentine's day but there was also JAMES'S 3rd birthday. (talk about time going too quickly). big d was in the daily newspaper on monday. i also did a "day in the life" on the 15th. i did this last year for james's birthday so i thought i would do it again this year. my plan is to do it the 15th of every month now.

this is how the week turned out. 

i did a screen grab of the weather because we actually got snow here in SC. flurries nothing that stuck. i used thickers over the image of my leg, having a vein removed in the coming weeks, so this is my before picture. the ladybugs were on a present from james's birthday and it super cute so i kept it. the journal card with the die cut 3 was from my recent studio calico purchase. i realized that because i am doing a weekly summary this year rather than the daily one i am going to run out of large journal cards so i made some. its a 4x6 with chevrons. i made a series of these and now i opened an etsy store to sell them if you are interested. 

this is a layered view of the right hand side, it has first a 7 x 5 page protector with my husband's news article in it. then behind that is james's "day in the life" layout, and last the right hand project life page. 

above is the "day in the life" i used the template that ali edwards made. in the printing there was an error so i will be reprinting this one and then adding a nice chipboard 3 that i had zing'ed to the center of the collaged pictures.

we had a minor mishap with my canon 60D on james's birthday. at first i didn't think anything happened when d knocked it off the table while it was open but if you look closely you can see where it cracked the frame around the screen. thankfully it still functions correctly but it makes me sick to my stomach when i look at it. 

this is a page protector design G. i used my wishblade to cut the "a day in the life" from ali edwards. the picture of james dissenting a pen has a heart from studio calico on it. a little wooden love arrow also from studio calico on the picture of the boys and me. (i have been wanting to get into the habit of also taking a family picture once a month).  on james's birthday candle image i used a chic indie garland. then lastly, on d's picture with samson, i stamped an ali edwards stamp from technique tuesday. 

so that's week 7, hope you have a good week!