Ali Edwards's Blog, page 175

December Daily® 2016 | Announcements & Schedule & How It Works

It's time to start initial thinking about December Daily® for 2016. 

It's definitely not time to bring out your Christmas stuff (unless you really, really want to) but it is time to start thinking about how you want to document your holiday season. 

Around here we start that off by sharing new December Daily® products right around the first of September. This year we have changed the name of this ordering time from "pre-order period" to "order selection period." There was some confusion in the past regarding "pre-order" and what that meant when products sell out. In keeping with our goal of clear communication we hope that changing the name will help make it more clear that when things sell out they are likely gone. The production timeline for these products began in early 2016 - for us that means design, production, manufacturing, etc. - and we make every effort to order in quantities that will meet demand but that are also responsible business decisions (and some of those things are tough to predict). Thank you for understanding. 

Last week we announced the Mini Kit designers: 
Jasmine Jones, Pam Garrison, Holly Becker of Decor8, Liz Tamanaha of Paislee Press, and Kelly Mindell of Studio DIY!. Today we have sneak peeks of my main kit also available. You can check them all out here - click on the photo circle on that page to see sneak peeks of each of their kits. Full kits will be revealed when the order selection period begins this Thursday. On that page you will also find a sign up if you are interested in receiving December Daily® specific emails leading up to and during the holiday season (please note this is a separate email list from our regular marketing emails). 

Here's a look at the general timeline for 2016: 

ORDER SELECTION PERIOD BEGINS THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st

On September 1st at 8am PST the order selection period will begin (kits + albums + other add-on products). You will be able to locate the shopping page under the December Daily® 2016 menu at the top of this page. Products are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited. The selection period, where you can add products to your December Daily® box, will be open until September 30th. 

HOW ORDERING WORKS 
Add products to your December Daily® box.  Click "Order Box" to start the checkout process.   Review your order and click "Confirm Selection." At that time your credit card will be charged for the items you added to your box.   Throughout the month of September you can add more products to your December Daily® box (your card will be charged each time you click "Confirm Selection"). For example if on 9/3 you select my kit + Jasmine's kit, you will be charged for those two kits at that time. If you return on 9/10 and add an album and a stamp set to your box you will be charged for those items at that time. Once shipping begins in October, we'll pack everything up and send it to you.   The December Daily® box process includes a "Your Shipping" section which will allow you to see how much your current shipping charges are at any time.   Shipping charges, if they apply to your order, will be charged upon shipment.

Shipping rates for all items are as follows (these are the same as last year):

    Mini Kits: $2 US / $3 CAN / $4 Int'l per kit     Main Kit: FREE US / $4 CAN / $7 Int'l per kit     Pre-Order Shop Items (dies, stamps, and tab stickers): Free shipping to everyone     Albums: $3 US / $4 CAN / $7 Int'l per album     Domestic customers who spend $99 on items will receive free shipping.DIGITAL PRODUCTS AVAILABLE OCTOBER 10

December Daily® digital products for this year including the kits (cards + embellishments that translate to digital products), layered templates, and other products will be available for sale on October 10th (time TBA). 

STORYTELLING WITH DECEMBER DAILY® WORKSHOP BEGINS NOVEMBER 1

Starting November 1st I'll be re-running my well-received Storytelling With December Daily® workshop. The main content of this workshop will be the same as it was last year since it was a deep-dive into my processes and inspirations and storytelling ideas for the project since I first started - includes video walk-throughs and in-depth discussions of all my past albums and the way I told stories in each one. This workshop is not about working with any specific kit or product. I'll be adding in a new video overview of my 2015 album with new thoughts and reflections to this year's workshop.
Please note that we are considering an alumi option for people interested in participating again with the live community and will have more details as we get closer to registration.  

If you are brand new to the concept of 
December Daily® you can check out all my past projects here. You can also check out all my past blog posts sharing my foundation pages, processes, stories and more in my archives here. 

Health Update & Listen To Your Body

I had planned to be sharing photos of my trip to Bali with you these last few days but I ended up having a crazy health scare with deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in my leg) and pulmonary embolisms (blood clots on the lungs) that landed me in the hospital last weekend. I've been sharing some of the story on Instagram and wanted to share a bit more of an update here. 

My hope in sharing some of the more private details in this post is to encourage you to listen to your own body and to take action if/when it's needed to save your life or potentially that of someone you love. There is a lot more information about blood clots online (they can be caused by a variety of different things and not just long plane flights) but my suggestion is to talk to your own doctor if you have concerns. The internet can be a very scary place for health-related information and misinformation.  

Here's my story:

After returning home from Bali I had a leg ache/cramp in my lower right calf that wouldn't go away. For me it was a pain that made me want to keep stretching it - it was not noticeable on the outside of my leg (no redness or swelling). We had returned to the US on Sunday and I resumed my regular day to day life activities. By Thursday the calf pain was still present and I developed a low grade fever and was experiencing an overall feeling of "not goodness" (which can sometimes be known as jet lag to make it that much more complicated). I worked in the morning and then told Katie I needed to take a nap. Once I was up and walking around again I continued to not feel good and told Aaron that I wanted to go to a local Urgent Care (it was after 5pm) to have them check me out because the pain hadn't gone away and I was starting to feel nervous about it (fearing a blood clot due to my recent long travel). After arriving at Urgent Care I was told to go to the ER because they didn't have an ultrasound machine to test for a clot. 

There was a lot of mental second guessing going on along the way even in the beginning. Should I just wait until tomorrow and talk to my regular doctor? This is probably nothing. I hate going to the ER because I know how much it costs just walking in the door. It's probably nothing. But I'm definitely the person that wants to know what's going on and my anxiety is the kind that motivates me to take action/get a resolution vs. hide. 

I drove over to the ER and checked in. They called in someone to do the ultrasound and told me that I had a clot in my right calf that stretched into my right knee (called deep vein thrombosis/DVT). After some discussion they decided to start me on a blood-thinning medication (Pradaxa) and send me home. They asked multiple times if I had tightness in my chest or trouble breathing and at that point it wasn't an issue I was aware of for myself. At the end of my time there the last nurse I talked to said to me, "Here's the deal: if you feel anything strange, anything out the ordinary like shortness of breath or lightheadedness or pain in your chest, come back in here right away. This isn't something to mess around with." I think his very specific warning helped guide my decisions the over the course of the next day. Just a note for the sake of my memory - the wait that night for some people in the ER was 9 hours. I was lucky (or unlucky as the case may be) to be in and out of there in just a little over 3 hours. 

The fear with blood clots in your legs (or in your arms) is that they break off and travel to your lungs, heart, or brain. Without being overly dramatic, it can be fatal. According to the Mayo Clinic, "About one-third of people with undiagnosed and untreated pulmonary embolism don't survive."

So with that in mind (yikes), I went about my fairly regular routine and drove to fill my new subscription and did some work at my desk. I was tired and a little scared/anxious about what was happening, but okay. Early in the afternoon I was on the phone and walked upstairs to my bedroom and was winded and had trouble catching my breath while holding the conversation and needed to sit down. That is not normal for me at all and I definitely took note but chalked it up to just an overall feeling of fatigue that I was experiencing (international travel + moving in + getting back to work + the stuff of life).  

I was scheduled to go sign loan papers for a refinance of my house at 2pm and had planned to drop Audrey off with her Mom on the way to the appointment. While driving there I became lightheaded (and, at that point, very scared). I wondered if my anxiety was getting the best of me and was I creating these feelings or was it really a very bad sign (I learned after the fact that anxiety can be a warning sign for pulmonary embolisms - even more challenging for someone who already deals with anxiety). I dropped Audrey off and then decided to drive straight to the ER. I walked in and, through big crocodile tears, told the intake person that I swear I wasn't crazy and that I could possibly be making this up because I'm so worked up or something could be really wrong with me. I told her what I had been experiencing and they got me started in the triage process. 

I had an ekg and my vitals were fine. I was moved out of triage to a bed in the main section of the ER and met with a doctor. There was more crying on my part as I told her my story and that "sometimes I just cry when I talk when I'm really afraid" (those of you who've been around awhile might remember me learning the lesson about continuing to talk even when you're crying). After listening and checking me out she suggested doing a spiral ctscan because then I would either know it wasn't an issue or it would be and we'd go from there. Aaron arrived. They hooked me up to an IV to receive some kind of iodine injection during the ctscan. It was all very surreal but I felt really glad to be getting checked out to either alleviate my fear or take the next steps. 

I waited close to an hour and then the doctor came back and let me know that there the ctscan detected a series of small blood clots on my lungs (I remember her saying two but at the follow-up visit to my doctor today we got to see the scans and there were definitely more than two). I might have cheered a little bit just in knowing that I wasn't making it up but I was also still very scared about what it all really meant. From there I ended up being admitted to the hospital for monitoring while they started me on Lovenox (a low-weight molecular heparin that is injected). I spent the night in the hospital and had the chance to talk to a bunch of different nurses and the doctor about what was happening - if everything stayed stable they planned to send me home the next morning. 

I know not everyone likes the hospital but I'm one of those people who doesn't mind. I was really happy to be monitored and to alleviate some of the bigger fears I was experiencing under the care of nurses and a doctor. I wasn't in a hurry to get out of there. 

The noisy chatter of all that is regular life (work, the internet, meetings, decisions to be made, putting all the stuff away in the house, etc) stopped and all that was left was the most important things: the people. I'm really thankful to my local community of friends and family who reached out with support and help with all the kids (and support directly for Aaron) while I was in the hospital. It's amazing how people mobilize when things like this happen.  

The next day we talked about discharging me. I was still feeling "off" overall but my vitals were fine and I wasn't experiencing shortness of breath or any other major symptoms. We decided to have me do a walking test around the floor (I was in the cardiac unit of a section of the hospital called the Heart & Vascular Center) to watch my blood oxygen levels. As I walked around I was doing okay but towards the end my oxygen levels starting dropping below a level they were comfortable sending me home. So I stayed another night.   

I really do try to live a life that focuses on gratitudes in my everyday life. Sitting in my hospital bed I had time to reflect on all that from a very different perspective once again. Health scares have a way of bringing the most important things, what truly matters, of our lives into acute focus. I might have laughed out loud a few times there in the room by myself - at the absurdity of the whole situation - and I gave so much thanks that I was okay and not the alternative. It was a very direct message to stop and rest. 

The next day (Sunday) I had an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) and I did another walk-around test where my levels stayed closer to where they should be so it was decided I didn't need to take any oxygen home with me. The orders from the doctor were to rest and to continue getting the Lovenox injections for a few more days and then go back on the Pradaxa and check in with my doctor within a week. If I experienced any of the same symptoms again I'm supposed to go to the ER. I felt comfortable going home and was ready for the next phase (and significantly more calm then when I entered the ER on Friday night). 

Coming home was the best gift. That night I sat on my bed with Aaron and all the kids while he played guitar while watching The Killers concert on Quello (an ironic band name for the situation but one of my favorites) and all the kids were either dancing or watching and I was overcome with gratitude for what is right now. It was one of those moments I don't think I'll forget.

The next few days were spent in bed with the exception of going to an infusion clinic for the Lovenox injections each morning (thankful to my friends who came over and took me to my appointment). I've been taking it as easy as I can with lots of resting, napping and reading. I was seriously so glad I had my Kindle along with me for the entire experience. So much waiting and resting both in and out of the hospital. From Thursday to yesterday I read Dark Matter, Where'd You Go Bernadette, Before The Fall and The Aviary. I didn't watch any TV. I turned off any noises on my phone. I just let my body rest. 

Today I'm heading to the doctor for a check-in after this week. I'm looking forward to asking more questions and seeing what his take is on things. I'm cautiously optimistic that the medicine is doing what it's supposed to do and I'll be on it for the next three to six months at least. I'm taking it super slow and doing a little bit here and there and resting when I get tired (which is still often). 

But I'm here and I'm oh so very thankful. 

New Story Theme Now Available | Drive

Today I'm excited to introduce you to the next story theme: Drive.

Whether you drive to work, failed your first driver’s test, drive your kids around and around, are heading out on a road trip, or are driven crazy by one thing or another, we all have stories related to the ways we are driven in our lives (both literally and figuratively). Join us this month as we focus on the things that motivate us, the reasons we drive around, and stories related to driving/being driven.

If you are already a subscriber to you can now access the content in the classroom (
make sure you are logged in to your account).

If you are new to the Story Subscription program, check out all the details here.

Here's a look at the 
Story Kit™ contents for Drive: 

And the 
Drive Story Stamp™:

We also have a 
Digital Story Kit™ subscription available that includes access to the classroom content. Here's a look at what's included for Drive (
which also shows all the designs for the journal cards included in the printed version of the kit): 

Here's a video overview of the products included in the kits this month: 

And a couple peeks at the layouts I created with the kits this month in addition to the one featured at the top of this post (
full details, including process videos and how-to handout, are included with subscription):

Again, thanks so much for subscribing and/or considering my Story Subscription program!

AE Digital Creative Team | Stuff Digital Story Kit™

Happy Friday!

Today I'm sharing awesome layouts made by my
Digital Creative Team using the Stuff Digital Story Kit™.

Be sure to check out our 
Creative Team Gallery where you can go to see how the team is crafting their stories using my products - including additional images from the projects we are sharing below. We'll be updating it a couple times a month.

This month the team is sharing stories they crafted using the Stuff Digital Story Kit™ which is available for a few more days (last day to start a subscription is the 14th). Remember that all subscriptions, including the digital subscription, includes a classroom with specific ideas for working with each theme.

Just a heads up again that most of my team uses the digital kit to create paper projects - meaning they print out the digital pieces and add them to paper layouts/pockets (vs. completely digital projects).

Brandi Kincaid

Carol Chastain

Jen Schow (see more photos and a process video here)

Pam Baldwin (See more photos of this project in the Creative Team Gallery)

Sarah Zayas

Jen Carlson

Ingunn Markiewicz

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Check out the Creative Team Gallery for more detailed photos of each members projects.

Interested in learning more about working with digtal scrapbooking products? Check out my free series on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking here. 

Check out all my digital/printable scrapbooking supplies here

Around Here

I was on the Paperclipping Roundtable podcast earlier this week (talking about documenting mental health issues) and during the discussion I talked about how much I valued my Around Here posts - the ones that capture a combination of facts and feelings about what's happening in my home and my head and my heart at any given time. It was a good reminder to get myself back in the habit of taking the time to write it down and share it here and then turn it into a layout when I have a chance. 

So here are a few things happening around here: 

PACKING & PREPARING | Leaving on a jet plane this weekend for my Scrapmap trip to Bali. This one has been planned for a couple years and filled up fast with people who have gone on past trips with me. I'll likely be planning another one of these in the future to a different destination and I'll let you know the details for that when they become available. I'll be taking a Traveler's Notebook and using that style of documenting for this trip - my first time. I'm excited to mix it up, get a little looser with my documenting, and see what happens. 

UNPACKING | Aaron, by the time this posts, will have completely moved all his belongings into my house (or very close to it). There is a big old mess exploding downstairs and in my bedroom and I'm taking it all in stride. Once we get back from Bali the plan is to finish up his music room in the garage (I have an extended garage which has enough space to park a car + make a room in the back) and then a lot of the stuff that's in the house now can move out to the garage. The plans for the creation of an additional bedroom upstairs are in the architectural drawing stage (this will be combining the room outside my office + my album shelf area into a a new bedroom for the girls).  

LISTENING | To all the kid conversations. Listening for happiness. Listening for signs of stress. Listening to their banter. Listening to the ways in which they communicate with one another. Listening to "Pictures Of You" and "Just Like Heaven" from The Cure. Listening to podcasts: season two of Undisclosed, The Simple Show, and On Being.

WATCHING | Aaron and I started watching Stranger Things on Netflix. It's a bit too scary for me (meaning I have to hide my eyes at some parts) but I want to know what happens now. I definitely can't watch it alone.

PURCHASING | I bought a new camera this week and it's all Liz's fault. Actually, it was time - I went with a Canon 6D. I'll post more about it after I have a chance to use it. 

READING | My copy of the new Harry Potter book came yesterday. Both Simon and Isaac were super interested (Isaac has read the series multiple times and if you've been reading my stories for any length of time you know Simon's affinity for the series). Simon followed me around for the rest of the night reading it out loud and he kept coming across characters and going "NO WAY. NO WAY." and getting so excited. I think he totally loves that it is in a script format (based on a play currently running in London) - one of his favorite things to do in the last year or so is to re-write movie scripts by watching them with the subtitles on and transcribing the stories into Word documents. Yep, he was excited.    

LOADING & UNLOADING | The dishwasher. I'm looking forward to getting back from this trip and setting up some new house rules/kids jobs/chore charts. Adding four people to our house more than doubles the number of dishes when everyone is here and I want this to be a house where kids have responsibilities and share in the overall work of family life. 

GIVING THANKS | This has been a really great summer. Simon has loved being on the swim team (a total surprise) and I think he's loved the social aspect as much as anything. It's been a great way to begin the transition to high school since it's a neighborhood pool and he's gotten to meet a bunch of kids who will also be at the same high school. He's really grown - literally and figuratively - over the last few months and it has been such a cool thing to witness. He's excited for high school and we are doing our best to keep that positive momentum going into the fall. 

August Digital Release

Happy August!

In February we announced that we were changing up the way we release digital products from weekly to monthly. This month we are releasing 6 brand new products including the digital versions of the Beach and Celebrate stamp sets we have in the shop. In addition, we have made the digital word art files and decorative badges from our AED Summer Pinterest Passport series available for purchase.

We've also brought back over 20 Classic AE products from my past collection previously offered at Designer Digitals (Classic AE products are designated with a grey box around the product preview and have their own category here).

Click here to see all new products added as part of the August Digital Release. We also created a new category in the digital section of our shop that includes all the new (excluding the Classic AE) products for the last couple months, as well a category where you can find all of the previous Digital Story Stamps™.

NEW PRODUCT BREAKDOWN FOR AUGUST
Summer Passport StampsSummer Passport BadgesStuff Digital Story Stamp™Hello BeachCelebrate Food Messy Circles

If you are looking for more information on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking check out my free series of posts
here.

CLASSIC AE

We have over 20 new
Classic AE products in the shop this month focusing on a variety of everyday memory keeping products.

Thanks for your support and here's to telling more stories together!

Day In The Life™ | July 2016

This past Saturday I documented my day by taking a photo and doing a bit of journaling each hour for Day In The Life™. Today I'm sharing how I brought those photos and words together using Project Life® Design F page protectors (I'm adding these into my Project Life® album). 

First off I have to say that I really, really loved setting the hourly alarms on my phone as the reminder to take a photo and journal each hour. I've never approached this project that way before and it was a totally different experience. Usually I'm just taking photos whenever I feel like it throughout the day with the goal of simply capturing the real life routines of a regular day. I actually loved the limit/restriction of just taking a photo when the alarm went off. I ended up with 15 photos and 15 journal cards (I used the cards that came with the Day In The Life™ Mini Kit No. 2) that represent the day I lived. It was also super easy to just have the cards out on the kitchen counter to fill them in as the day went along. 

Another thing I loved about the process this time was that I took all vertical photos. I did this because I knew I was using the Design F page protectors with the 3x4 pockets. Generally almost every single photo I take is horizontal - it's just what I've always done and since I religiously use the Design A page protectors for Project Life® with seven of the 4x6 pockets for photos it just makes sense (when I do use an occasional 3x4 photo I just crop it before printing to adjust the orientation). It was a fun creative challenge for me personally to play with the vertical orientation - all it takes is a simple thing like that to ignite a different part of my creative lens. 

Yesterday I printed out the photos, created the title card, added the stickers and slipped everything into the pockets. Voila. 

Simple and easy for the win. 

Here's a look at how my day came together with a video overview below that includes information on using the new silkscreens in my shop (what I used for my title card): 

I ended up using two sheets of the Design F page protectors (all of one and 1/2 of the other - on the back of the second one I'm just planning to tell a different story). 

I varied the placement of the time cards and the photos - sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right - just for some visual variety. 

My formula was simple: on top of the journal cards I added one circle icon and on the photos I added one black & white phrase sticker. 

For the title card I used one of my new Days Of The Week silkscreens + some of my Pendleton (red) paint. I've included the how-to for using those silkscreens in the overview video below. 

In addition I used the Time Roller Stamp and a rolling date stamp to add both of those onto the title card. 

On the back of the first page I continued to add my photos and journal cards. On the back of the title card I paired a fun number pattern paper (this was from a past Studio Calico kit but they have the pattern available as part of a 4x6 paper pad here) with one of the speech bubbles from the Day In The Life™ Mini Kit No. 2. I didn't end up using most of those speech bubbles on this project but love that they are "everyday" enough to use in future Project Life® spreads. 

For the third page of content I repeated what I had done on the first two. In the 4x6 pocket I added a "love" speech bubble and simply stapled it to the front portion of the page protector to keep it in place. The back side of this page is currently empty and waiting to be filled with another story (maybe one about all the stuff around here related to Aaron and kids moving in). 

Overall, I loved this different take on the process and will definitely do it like this again another time in the future. 

VIDEO OVERVIEW + SILKSCREEN DEMOSUPPLIES 
Day In The Life™ Mini Kit No. 2 Days Of The Week Silkscreen Set AED Pendleton Paint Time Roller Stamp Project Life® Design F Page Protector Studio Calico 4x6 Paper Pad - June 2016 (or via the Scout Scrapbook Kit) Rolling Date Stamp Tiny Attacher Stapler

The Next Chapter

Sometimes when I tell the story of my life I talk about how at one point, before getting into memory keeping and before having any kids, I envisioned that I was on a path to being a stay-at-home-mom and having five kids while my husband worked to support our family.  

Life has a funny way of making things happen in ways we never expect. 

My story, like most of yours, has twists and turns and highs and lows. We imagine things are going to happen one way and then something entirely different happens - either by our own choice or the choices of others. That has definitely been the story of my life - from having a child with autism to my career to going through a divorce to finding a new partner. 

A couple weeks ago I posted the following on Instagram: 

Almost 4 years ago my friend Kim left me a message telling me about a friend of hers who was looking for a friend. "You have similar stories," she said. We met a couple days later when Katie and I went to the Twilight marathon at the movie theater (a great story for another time). Since then we've been to China, New York, Disneyland & Disneyworld, France, Hawaii, Peru, Mexico, and to the Gorge to see Dave Matthews the last three Labor Day weekends. We've had a zillion and one discussions about the past, the present and the future - about who we are and where we come from and can this actually work. We are both over-thinkers (which serves us well in certain areas of our lives) which can be a little tricky when it comes to forward movement in a relationship, especially when there are a bunch of other hearts & minds involved. All this to say, we are moving forward together. ❤️. Anyone want to buy my house?

Moving forward together. That's what this next chapter is all about. 

Since posting that on Instagram we've decided to stay in my house and make some modifications to hold everyone (my heart is super happy about this decision but I was also completely willing to move). We're in the process of having plans drawn up to create one additional bedroom and we are creating a room in the back of my garage as a space for Aaron's work and music. 

Aaron has three kids ages 7 (Audrey), 9 (Elliott), and 11 (Isaac). As most of you know, I have two kids (Anna - age 7 and Simon - age14). All together, as basic math would have it, that equals five kids. 

The crazy thing of life for us and our specific situation is that sometimes we'll have all five kids here in the house and sometimes we'll have none and sometimes it will be any other number combination. We both have caring ex-spouses who are very involved in their children's lives. All together we form a community of grown-ups who are working together for the greater good of these kids - one day at a time, one conversation at a time, one decision at a time. 

We take nothing for granted and no decisions lightly. And nothing is perfect. 

As I was writing this post I went back through all my photos for the last four years to share with you today. I've been taking photos all along since the day we met and since the day all our kids met. There have been many meals around tables and other adventures and celebrations and gatherings and everyday stuff. Not all of these photos and stories have been told or shared publicly. Some have made it into my Project Life® albums - many of those photos included the backs of kids' heads as it wasn't yet time to share them as part of the larger story of our lives. 

Two years ago (almost to the day) I wrote a post called A Story Of Two People. When I re-read that today what I love reading most is this, "We are learning as we grow. Alone and together about who we are as individuals and who we are together and what it means to have our families expand." Taking our time was important to us because the story includes so many more people than just him and me. 

As we begin the process of intentionally merging together it's with joy and enthusiasm from all the involved hearts. Simon told me, "I've always wanted brothers."

Here are some pieces of our story as it's evolved: 

Our first coastal adventure in December 2012. They have all grown so much over the last four years. Anna and Audrey will likely not remember what it was like before knowing each other (they were both three/almost four when we met).

Sunriver 2013. 

County Fair 2013.

Seattle 2014. 

Disneyland 2014 with Simon + Isaac. 

Out at the lake July 2014.

Spring Break RV trip 2015.

Reading Harry Potter by headlamp.

Traveling home from DisneyWorld July 2015.

And then there have been many adventures just me and Aaron: 

New York 2012. 

China 2013. 

Paris 2013. 

Dave Matthews 2013 (and 2014 and 2015).

Peru 2014 (can't wait to see you guys again Bob + Donna). 

San Francisco 2014.

Coos Bay 2014.

Spring Break 2015 at a Golden State basketball game in Oakland. 

One thing that I'm super excited about is that when we come home from a trip now we will be coming back to the same house instead of heading to our separate homes. 

And then there's just the everyday life kinda stuff - some at his house and some at my house:  

Playing music. 

Playing video games. 

Watching movies or shows. 

Talking about blogs. 

Reading books. Aaron is the very best at tucking his kids in for the night. Seriously impressive effort. 

"Maybe someday we'll be sisters."

And many times around the table. 

Here are some of the things I'm learning/re-learning/thinking about right now:

Life really does unfold in chapters. Some move the story forward with heartbreak and some with crazy amounts of joy. 
It's okay to just embrace what "is" right now. What "is" for us is a very big transition. We are taking our time. We are embracing the mess that is moving two complete households into one. We are conscious and aware of feelings and tensions and figuring it out one step at a time.
That in sticking with my life mantra of living the length and the width I need to let myself really be happy in this season without falling back into fear. 
I'm thinking a lot about and looking for ways to celebrate and honor the beginning of the next chapter. This is a big deal for all of us. The merging of personalities and my continued mission to celebrate each one for who they are. 
I'm treasuring and not taking for granted having a partner again under the same roof again. The give and take of it all. I'm so glad that I had a decent length of time to essentially be on my own in this house - to embrace that time for what it was and all that it taught me about myself and my kids and all that I learned about Aaron along the way. 
So much excitement for the creation of new traditions.
I'm researching and looking for ideas and tips for large family meal planning and organization. Even though they won't all be here all the time I want to have it be as organized as possible - I think we all operate better under those conditions. 

Here's to stories unfolding and hearts expanding and in-the-middle-of-the-mess-transitions and opening wider. 

Day In The Life™ This Saturday July 30th

Hey friends! Just a friendly reminder that I'll be embarking on my second Day In The Life™ project for 2016 this Saturday, July 30th. 

For my documentation this time I'll be using this kit that includes 24, 3x4 cards (also available digitally here) + a sticker sheet + epoxy circles + fun speech bubble die cuts. 

MIXING UP THE PROCESS / MY APPROACH

My approach this time is going to be a little different than in the past because I'm ready to mix it up. 

Using my iPhone I'm going to set up hourly reminders and each time my alarm goes off I'm going to take a photo with my phone and write on one of the cards - right then and there. My hope is to have the majority of the project done by the end of the day by simply taking the quick minute or two each hour to document in the moment (meaning my words + photos will be taken care of minus any editing I might do before printing). In the days following that I'll print out my photos and add my embellishments. 

I'll be adding this day into my Project Life® album using 

Christmas In July | December Daily® 40% Off Sale

Just a quick update to let you know that this week I'm having a Christmas In July sale with 40% off all December Daily® products (both physical and digital) as we begin to make room for all the new 2016 December Daily® products. Look for more details in August regarding ordering kits and products for holiday 2016. 

Sale ends July 25th at 11:59pm. No promo code required. While supplies last (digital products will not be removed from the shop after the sale is over but it's a great price to stock up now). 

Also, throughout this week, we are doing December Daily® giveaways over on my @aliedwardsdesigninc Instagram account. That's a great account to follow for any and all product updates. 

Hope you have a great week!