Ali Edwards's Blog, page 218

Project Life® 2014 | Week Sixteen (Studio Calico Project Life® Kit)

Say hello to Project Life® 2014 | Week Sixteen (April 14th through April 20th). You can check out all the new kits for June (called Hello Hello) over at Studio Calico here: Scrapbook Kit | Project Life® Kit | Card Kit.

Never underestimate the power of the pen.

Maybe I should also say, “never underestimate the power of pink.” I actually have a draft post in progress talking about my developing interest/love for the color pink.

Pink + gold = even more fun.

Pink + gold + a whole lot of handwriting = Week Sixteen.

Here’s a look:

Writing on photos. Writing on journaling cards. Writing anywhere I can add-in a few more words. I really liked being really “loose” and “playful” with my pens this week.

Pink pen is a Distress Marker from Tim Holtz (color is Picked Raspberry). Super fun to work with this pen for writing out some of the journaling this time – love that it has two tip sizes.

Black pens are a Medium Slick Writer and a .03 Precision Pen.

I had a really hard time photographing this spread. I think it was a combination of the time of day, the weather, and something seems to be up with my lens creating a blur in the upper left corner consistently. Might be time for a new lens.

I’ve got a new set of digital art coming out soon that will include the “God Bless” sentiment above.

This was the week of Easter. Because I already did a layout that included more photos and the longer story from Easter I was fine with just adding in one/two photos here.

The little pink letter stickers in this kit are awesome.

I used another one of those Simple Stories 3×4 Photo Flips to hold the circle embellishment. I used a 2-inch circle punch to remove that from the filler card.

To keep it in one place I stapled it with the Tiny Attacher.

Great example of being more playful with my pens and using the space and lines in the photo to add words.

ACTION ITEMS/IDEAS

Get out those pens and use them! Get playful and mess around and think more in terms of “art-journaling” vs. “scrapbooking.” If you think in your head you are “art-journaling” then you might just give yourself a little more freedom and permission to play with your words.
Is there a color you resist? Consider embracing it and see where it takes you. I’ve been warming up to pink slowly but surely over the last few years. Purple might be next.

SUPPLIES | 2014 | WEEK SIXTEEN

Click on the images to link to the products.

InLinkz.com

Project Life® is a product and a system and a lifestyle created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. The core pieces used in my album are available here. If you live outside the US check Becky’s site for more information on sources. View all my posts about Project Life® here.

AE | The Weekend Lens

Ah, a long weekend at home.

The perfect opportunity for some backyard camping on Saturday night and practice for some potential upcoming camping adventures later this summer.

We were joined by Aaron and his three kids which means all kinds of play and fun and food and dolls and legos and messes and laughter.

Two dogs added even more excitement to the mix. Katie’s dog Charlotte was here for the day on Saturday and Aaron’s dog Woody was here for the whole weekend.

The weather was just right for living outside.

On Friday night we stayed inside – the camping idea manifested itself on Saturday morning. We’ve done a handful of overnights with everyone all together from time to time – this was the first weekend of all being together two nights in a row at home. Aaron has three kids – a girl and two boys.

First sweet peas.

The peonies that I’m savoring every single day.

A new BBQ that Aaron set up.

Hot dogs (the kind we eat and the kind who run around and around the yard) and cheetos and corn on the cob and watermelon for dinner.

They all did great in the tents – no middle of the night wake-ups. We came inside for breakfast Sunday morning.

NOTE TO SELF | When camping out in the backyard make sure to turn off the sprinkler system. A little early morning wake-up and a run to the garage to turn them off. Only Aaron and I woke up for that excitement.

Eggs and toast all around.

On Monday I took the kids to a birthday party and then ended the weekend with a short swim at the pool before coming home for beans & cheese & chips.

I’m getting excited for summer and the change of routine and pace that brings with it. Planning to work on some sort of summer manifesto this week.

And the giveaway goes to…

 

GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win a Silhouette Portrait. (Open to US and Canadian residents only)



#568 | Samantha F said…We’ve wanted one of these for too long! Hoping this is our lucky break. Thanks to you both for another cool giveaway opportunity!

Congratulations! Please email Katie with your contact information.

Day In The Life | 4×4 Mini Book

Today I’m sharing what I ended up doing with my words & photos from my Day In The Life documentation back on May 8th. You can check out my post that just includes the words and photos here.

Last year I did a Day In The Life each month from January through June. I incorporated my words and photos into Project Life® using a 6 inch x 12 inch layered template. You can read more about how I did that here:

January
February
March
April
May
June

This time I decided to go with a 4 inch x 4 inch mini-album from We R Memory Keepers and ended up using 30, 4×4 photos.

All photos were printed here at home on the Epson Picturemate Show printer. I printed these on 4 inch x 6 inch paper and trimmed off the excess. I know I mention that printer all the time – it’s because I use it all the time and it’s awesome. I would totally buy another one if this one breaks. Love being able to print when and what I want.

In addition to my 4 inch x 4 inch photos I also used this 4 inch x 4 inch set of printables. I ended up printing these on the Epson Picturemate Show printer too. Sometimes I print printables on Epson Matte Presentation Paper and other times on photo paper. Depends on the size and on the color.

If you don’t want to work in the 4 inch x 4 inch size here’s a 3 inch x 4 inch Day In The Life Cards version as well for those of you that might a different size or color family.

I loved how these cards turned out. I used a Precision Pen in .03 to write on the photo paper.

On these cards I ended up adding some additional text that wasn’t included in my original post – they ended up being more perspective-style journaling vs. the facts of what was happening that day.

I also ended up cutting up a 12 inch x 12 inch piece of pattern paper from Teresa Collins for the last page of the album – that’s the diamond paper called Something Wonderful Geometric.

ANOTHER IDEA

If you’d like to incorporate 4 inch x 4 inch images and printables in Project Life® you could use these 12 inch x 12 inch page protectors from We R Memory Keepers.

Here’s a look at my completed book:

THOUGHTS ON THE PROCESS

I loved playing with this size. 4 inch x 4 inch was enough of a departure from what I usually work with that I felt renewed energy working in this size.
I loved putting the times on the photos. As you will see below I ended up putting the time, a line, and some text (pulled directly from my blog post) on each photo (with the exception of a couple that I left blank that were companions to another photo from the same time).
I added just a few embellishments here and there. I thought about adding more but I ended up even taking a few things off (and reprinting the photos).

Wood veneer circle is from Elle’s Studio Happy Day. White transparent polka dots is from this set at Studio Calico.

Small “the story” circle sticker is from Teresa Collins Something Wonderful Sticker Sheet. I cut it to make it a circle because it had an extra little tab on it.

As I mentioned above I opened, edited (using RadLab) and added text to each of my photos in Photoshop. I basically kept one file open and dragged and dropped my photos on top and then changed the time and words – each time doing a Save As at the end.

Most of times and words stayed in the same position but some changed due to more words or too much white along the bottom of the photo.

Sometimes when I put together projects like this I like to specify the kids ages. This means no math for me later on (win) when I look back through the album to try and figure out how old they were at a particular point in time.

This little insert is one of the 4 inch x 4 inch divided page protectors that I cut in half and slipped a “5″ and a “12″ in from this set of Heidi Swapp ephemera. Those are kept in place with small staples from the Tiny Attacher.

And, as some of you know, I love adding 2 inch index tabs to my inserts. Inside I slipped a couple stickers (stuck back to back) from Cosmo Cricket.

A stapled cork star adds a little interest to this one.

Cork heart added to this photo. Again, it was random.

For these two images I did want to add in something a little different. I chose these metal heart charms from Tim Holtz.

Each of the pieces are separate in the package (the charm, the designed paper and then a plastic epoxy that fits on top). I adhered them with a mini-glue dot.

A little cork heart to finish off the day.

SUPPLIES

Click on the images to jump to the products.

InLinkz.com

SHARE YOUR STORY | LINK TO YOUR DAY IN THE LIFE

Did you participate in Day In The Life this go-around? I’d love to see your blog post and/or how you made something with your content. Please link directly to your post vs. your general blog link.

The Phone Photography Project 2

Registration is now open for The Phone Photography Project 2 form Big Picture Classes.

28 days of photo tips, app tutorials, and iPhone awesomeness.

Would you like to take better photos with the camera you always have with you—your smartphone?

Get ready to transform your mobile photography in a brand-new interactive workshop, The Phone Photography Project 2, starting July 17. Twenty expert iPhoneographers have collected their best tips, tricks, and tutorials for phone photography, and they’re ready to share it all with you inside a private online classroom—with lots of fun happening on Instagram, too.

No matter what kind of camera or smartphone you use, taking better photos requires a basic understanding of photographic principles and the inspiration to see the amazing photo opportunities all around you. This class will show you that:

Your phone camera is capable of much more than you realize


Composition and lighting are just as important (if not more so) when you use a phone camera vs. a DSLR


You can produce frame-worthy snapshots with nothing more than your smartphone and the right combination of apps

With practical tips for mastering lighting, composition, editing, and more, this workshop will give you the tools you need to create impressive photos you’ll be proud to share online, in your home, or in your scrapbooks.

The Phone Photography Project 2 includes:

Practical tips for mastering lighting, composition, editing, and more


14 before-and-after video tutorials that demonstrate photo-editing techniques


Hands-on photography challenges every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from July 17 to August 16


14 image galleries featuring more than 250 inspiring photographs from your workshop instructors


Active, supportive Instagram community to share and view photographs


Resource section featuring app and equipment recommendations


Supply recommendations


Bonus handouts


Message board to share your thoughts with classmates and interact with instructors


Private posting gallery to share and view photographs

The workshop will run July 17-August 16.

Cost is $59. To find out more and to sign up click here.

Special Weekday Giveaway + Promotion | Silhouette Portrait™

GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win a Silhouette Portrait. (Open to US and Canadian residents only)

When you use the code “EDWARDS” betwen May 21-31 you will be able to get: The list of specialty media plus a Silhouette CAMEO® for $269.99 (savings of over $70 from retail cost $340.94)

Silhouette CAMEO® electronic cutting machine
$10 download card
12 in x 12 in cutting mat
Silhouette blade
1 pack printable cotton canvas
1 pack vellum
1 pack adhesive washi sheets
1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper
1 pack stencil material


When you use the code “EDWARDS” between May 21-31 you will be able to get:

this list of specialty media plus a Silhouette Portrait™ for $129.99 (savings of over $80 from retail cost $220.94)
Silhouette Portrait™ electronic cutting machine
$10 dollar download card
8.5 x 12 in cutting mat
Silhouette blade


1 pack printable cotton canvas
1 pack vellum
1 pack adhesive washi sheets
1 pack printable adhesive kraft paper
1 pack stencil material


When you use the code “EDWARDS” between May 21-31 you will be able to get 25% off on all Specialty Media.

ABOUT | The Silhouette Portrait™ is an electronic cutting tool for personal use. Like a home printer, it plugs into your PC or Mac® with a simple USB cable. However, instead of printing it uses a small blade to cut paper, cardstock, vinyl, fabric and more up to 8″ wide and 10 feet long. The machine also has the ability to register and cut printed materials.

Here are some helpful tutorials from me using the Silhouette Studio® Software:

Using PNG files with Silhouette Studio® Software
Tracing and welding PNG files with the Silhouette Studio® Software
Tracing my For The Love Of Days Journal Cards with Silhouette Studio® Software

Here are a few of my favorite projects I’ve created for Project Life using the Silhouette Cameo®:

Cutting out and using my For The Love Of Days Journal Cards to document our daily happenings of our Disneyland Trip in Project Life
Cutting a quote out using The Silhouette Cameo® + Vellum for Project Life
Using The Silhouette Cameo® + American Crafts POW! Glitter Paper to add a little something extra to my Heart Life 3×4 Boxes in Project Life

 

DESIGNER DIGITALS QUARTLY SALE

Designer Digitals is having their 4th quarter sale and all of my products are currently 40% off until this Friday, May 23rd at 6am EST.

Here are some of my recent designs that would look great cut out on the Silhouette:

Daily Starbursts. You can see how I paired one of these designs with the Silhouette on a layout here.

Congrats Grad

School’s Out

Super Flags

This Really Happened Circles

 

TO BE ENTERED into this giveaway please leave a comment below (if you are reading this post on Facebook please come to my blog to leave a comment). Comments will be closed at 8pm Pacific on Sunday, May 25th . The winner will be announced shortly after. Please be sure to check back or subscribe (click here to get posts delivered to your email box) to see if you are receiving one of the items.

Documenting Kauai 2014 With Artifact Uprising Photobook

As a memory keeper I love having a variety of different tools at my fingertips to tell my stories.

Sometimes I want a project to be artsy & craftsy and other times I want it to be really focused on the simple beauty of words and photos. I feel thankful that there are options for all the different ways I want to tell my stories.

For my spring break adventure with Aaron to Kauai I decided to do a simple words and photos focused 6 inch x 8 inch photobook.

For printing I decided to try out Artifact Uprising. I’ve been watching them grow over the last few months and I adore their aesthetic and their mission: inspired by the disappearing beauty of the tangible / bettered by a community of inspired storytellers / driven by the belief that everyone has a story to tell. Tell On.

Ah, yeah.

DISCLAIMER | I connected with Artifact Uprising via Cathy (who has used their services and loved the result) and they offered to cover the cost of a photobook for me to try them out. I ended up going with a larger size book and I ordered two copies and I paid the difference. As always, all views here are my own.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

For this photobook I started out with a few things in mind:

I wanted full page photos (vs. photos floating on a page of white or multiple cropped images on a page). And I wanted to add quotes to some of the photos.
I wanted to use one set of word art used very simply on a white background. I ended up going with Diamonds Are Forever.
I wanted this to be a curated collection of photos from our trip. I didn’t intend to put every photo I took in this album.
I wanted to do a 6 inch x 8 inch size. The soft-cover album from Artifact Uprising costs $22.99 for 40 pages.
I wanted to just use the text I wrote up for my blog post.

PREPARE IMAGES/PAGES

To begin this project I first cropped and edited all my photos to 6 inch x 8 inches and saved as JPG files using Photoshop. All the photos I used for this book were taken with my iphone and I used RadLab to edit. On some of the photo pages I added quotes or word art (like the cover) before saving.

If you aren’t adding word art or specialized text (fonts from your own collection) to your photos you can simply upload them to Artifact Uprising without cropping them first. I wanted full control over the fonts and text.

I also made 6 inch x 8 inch word art pages in Photoshop. I created a new 6 inch x 8 inch canvas (300dpi) with a white background and then placed the Diamonds Are Forever word art in the center of each page.

CREATE A MAP

After getting my images and pages ready I laid them out in Illustrator so I could see and decide on a flow for the book. You could do this same thing with a piece of paper and a pencil. I found it to be really helpful in deciding where I wanted two photo pages on a spread or one word art page and one full photo page.

I did end up going back in and adding a few more pages and photos after laying it out via this visual map.

UPLOAD PHOTOS/PAGES TO ARTIFACT UPRISING

After I had all my pages saved as JPG’s I uploaded them to Artifact Uprising and placed them within the pages of the 6 inch x 8 inch book (there are currently three different soft-cover options for 6 inch x 8 inch photobooks). I selected the first one and removed the text box they have added because my image already had my word-art included.

I thought the user interface was smooth. It was easy to upload and drag and drop my images.

They offer a variety of different page layouts that you can choose from. I changed all the pages into the book to the full-image page so there was no additional cropping of my images.

One thing I did notice is that even when I saved my project as I was working on it, when I would come back to the project I would need to upload the images again (the ones I had already added to the book were saved in the book but they weren’t available to me in the images area below the book). That could be something I wasn’t saving/doing correctly, I’m not sure.

Other than that it was a super smooth experience. Really so easy and I love the final result.

Here’s a look at my completed book:

Super happy and I would definitely use Artifact Uprising again for future photobooks and for printing.

PS | Also a reminder that the Designer Digitals Quarterly Sale is on right now with 40% off everything in the shop. Check out my complete collection of printables, word art, templates and more here.

Wake Up Ali. We’re Going On An Airplane.

“Wake up Ali. We’re going on an airplane.”

That’s what I heard as Katie & Peter came walking into my bedroom last Friday morning at about 3:50am.

But let me back up.

I’ve known that Katie was up to something for the last week or two. About a month ago she put a Portland planning day on the calendar for Friday. There’s nothing suspicious about that as we like to drive up there (we live about 2 hours away) from time to time and talk business and get inspiration and get out of the office for the day.

It became a bit suspicious when I got an email from Anna’s soccer coach about their end of the year banquet which was scheduled for that same Friday evening. “You can’t go.” Katie told me. “You’re going to have to see if they can move the date. You’re not going to be back from Portland by then. And we can’t change the day.”

At that point I knew for sure something was up.

I thought maybe there was a concert in Portland or something along those lines that she was going to surprise me with.

So last Thursday morning started as usual. I went for a walk, came back and Katie was here to start the day. We did a bit of work and then I went to take a shower. When I came back into the office after taking a shower and getting ready for the day my dear friend Paolo was sitting at my desk.

“Surprise!”

That was an awesome surprise, especially given that I’d just sent him a text the day before seeing if he could fly down in the next couple of weeks to do some creative brainstorming with me on a project we are working on. If you didn’t know, Paolo works for Alaska Airlines which is what gives him lots of travel opportunities.

At this point I’m thinking – awesome – Paolo is coming with us to Portland for the day. That’s the story they stuck with most of the day but I was still suspicious and thought maybe we were going to head up to Portland that night and got to a concert or other event. Earlier in the week Katie had told me to invite Aaron to come over on Thursday night and we’d have pizza and watch a movie. She’s been wanting me to watch About Time since she saw it months ago.

We did a bit more work and then went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then they said we were going back to my house for brainstorming. I was waiting for them, at any moment, to say “surprise” we are doing this but they stuck with the pizza and movie plan.

After lunch we brainstormed.

Around 5pm Katie left for the day to take Charlotte (her dog) home and said she’d be back with pizza around 6:30pm. Paolo and I started cocktail hour and talked more in the way we usually do – about business and life and fun with lots of reminiscing thrown in (we’ve know each other for 24 years).

Around 6pm Aaron showed up and he didn’t have Woody (his dog) with him so I figured for sure we were going somewhere on Thursday night. Katie brought the pizza over around 6:30pm and her husband Peter arrived around 7pm. We ate and drank and had a few more drinks and sat outside in my backyard and around 11pm decided we’d watch the movie. By this point I thought to myself that this has been an awesome night and going to Portland tomorrow will be fun.

We finish the movie around 1am (awesome movie about celebrating everyday life and the moments we are in right now). Katie and Peter head home. Paolo heads to the guest room and Aaron and I climb in bed upstairs. We decide we’ll meet at 8:30am to drive to Portland.

At 3:45am Aaron’s phone alarm goes off and I’m totally asleep and trying to figure out why in the heck his alarm is going off. He’s not usually an early riser and it was still dark outside and I was in that early morning haze where nothing makes sense. I asked him what time it was and why in the world his alarm was going off. He barely responded. I hear something downstairs and just figure Paolo must have gotten up to go to the bathroom.

Instead, Katie and Peter come walking into my room and say, “Wake up Ali. We’re going on an airplane.”

Some of you might remember that I’ve done this sort of surprise with my kids a couple times. I love doing it to them.

These guys totally got me.

“Are you kidding? Really? Really? Are we really going somewhere?”

“Yep. Get up.”

“Do I need to pack anything?”

“Nope. We are just going for the day.”

I look over at Aaron and I say, “Are you coming too?” and he tells me that he has to go to work which wasn’t a surprise because he’s nearing the end of a big project and I knew he had a lot on his plate. Even in the middle of the awesome surprise it was hard not to feel disappointed that he wouldn’t be coming too. I gave him a long hug and a kiss and lingered there for a few moments as I collected myself.

And then I got up. I put my clothes on. I walked downstairs. I gave Katie a big hug. I gave Peter a big hug. I gave Paolo a big hug. There was lots of laughing and giggling and head shaking. Lots of “didn’t we just go to bed?” and “OMG” and that kind of stuff. We were all really tired but I was so game for this adventure.

I didn’t ask where we were going. I figured they’d tell me when it was time for me to know.

I heard the shower turn on upstairs. I thought to myself that there’s no way Aaron would be taking a shower at 4am if he wasn’t actually going with us because he is not an early morning person unless there’s a really good reason and he didn’t need to be at work until later. I’m still not sure what exactly is happening and the other three are not giving me any information.

We stand around in the kitchen for a bit and at that point I’m wondering why we aren’t leaving since I already said goodbye to Aaron (even though I continue thinking and hoping to myself that he might be coming). Then they tell me that Aaron is going to drive us to the airport. I’m still skeptical because it just wasn’t all lining up in my head.

I sit down at the table to wait for whatever is next. At this point Paolo looks over at me and I’m pretty sure he could tell I was starting to feel a little anxious and/or unsure. He knows me well enough to know that even though I love adventure and travel and surprises I have a hard time letting go of control. Not knowing is being out of control. He comes over to me and whispers, “Aaron’s coming too.”

I hug him. Tight.

Aaron comes downstairs all showered and ready, still pretending that he’s not coming with us wherever it is that we are going. “You guys ready to go to the airport?” he asks. We all grab our stuff (it is seriously so fun to get to travel without any luggage) and head out the door. I’ve got a big smile at this point and as Aaron starts to get in his car I get in with him knowing that he was going to drive to the airport too.

On the drive over I tell him how happy I am that he is coming too.

I live about 12 minutes from the local airport. On the way I have start feeling a little anxiety realizing that I’m about to get on an airplane for an unknown destination and in the excitment of the morning I forgot to bring my Xanax which is something I don’t usually fly without. I used to have intense airplane anxiety many years ago which lead me to having a talk with my doctor who prescribed xanax for this type of anxiety. It actually went away for a number of years as I traveled more and more but it’s recently become an issue again the last few times I’ve flown (to China, Kauai and to Houston). I like to have it just in case I need it because the anxiety can come on fast and it’s really, really hard for me to control without the medication (I usually try deep breathing/mediation/visualization). Because this was all a surprise I wasn’t in my regular “prepare for travel” mode I didn’t even think to pack it.

I tell myself that I’ll be fine.

We park and walk in.

Paolo gets our boarding passes and our first stop is Seattle.

I think it was at this point that they told me that we were hoping to head to San Francisco but we might end up somewhere else depending on the flight loads. We were flying stand-by with passes the Paolo is able to acquire as an employee of Alaska Airlines.

Love this idea so, so much.

We make our way through security and find a place to sit. At this point I start feeling a little panicky and sick to my stomach. I know some of you are reading this and thinking, but you travel really regularly. I know! And I love it. But there’s something about it that gives me anxiety and you add that to being really excited for the surprise and unsure of what’s to come and you get me in a bit of a panic with an upset stomach (which is where my anxiety often ends up).

After a short group discussion about my increasing anxiety we do the risky thing and Aaron and I drive back to my house (about a 24 min round trip) to get the Xanax because I’m not sure I can make it through four flights in one day without it. I knew I’d feel better if I had it and if we missed this first flight there was another we could take not too long after.

What I love about my friends is that they love me and my little bit of crazy regardless.

Aaron drove as safely as he could in a time crunch back to my house. I jumped out of his car, came inside, grabbed my medication, locked the door and got back in his car.

Very long story short, we made it back in time to catch that first flight to Seattle (they had just started boarding and there was no line in security).

Walking out to the plane there was a lot of excitement, a couple of high-5′s and lots of joy.

We landed in Seattle and then took a second flight to San Francisco.

We rode BART into the city and headed to the waterfront first thing. We walked through the Ferry Building and grabbed some empenadas and walked towards Fisherman’s Warf. We ate lunch at Boudin and then continued walking down around the corner and out onto a pier so we could see the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance.

It was a beautiful clear day.

We walked back up the hill to ride the trolley until we found out it was more than an hour wait. There was a limo driver there who told us he’d take us to Union Square for the same price as the trolley. When he told us his name was Rufus there was no way we could say no – this is because we’d had a whole discussion earlier in the day about that name and some friends who were considering and/or joking about it as name for their baby. When he told us his name we all burst out laughing and just knew we needed to get a ride with him. Rufus for the win.

We hung out in the park for a bit, walked through Anthropologie and Zara and then headed back to the airport on BART.

I’ve never done a day trip flight like this and it was so, so cool.

We were able to get on our flight back to Seattle but weren’t able to get on our stand by flight back to Eugene (filled up due to an earlier flight cancellation) so our day trip ended up including an overnight (note to self – whenever you find yourself on a “day trip” that includes flying you should always just stash a change of clothes in your bag – I did have a toothbrush at least). Our back up plan included staying the night at Cedarbrook Lodge which is a lovely hotel right near the airport.

Early Saturday morning we headed back over to the airport and boarded a plane to Eugene. Paolo ended up staying the night – the original plan was that he would have flown back to Seattle on Saturday morning if we would have made it back on Friday night.

This meant BONUS fun day.

Aaron headed off to work for a few hours and Paolo and Katie and Peter and I decided to stop at our houses for a shower and a bit of work and then agreed to meet up for brunch and then hit some garage sales. Aaron ended up finishing his work earlier than expected so he met up with us at the restaurant.

And then had an awesome sunny day of garage sales, thrifting, and an antique store.

After lots of looking and walking around we went to a local outdoor restaurants for cocktail hour and then decided to cook shabu shabu for dinner at my house. Shabu shabu is a Japanese meal – a little like a hot pot – that usually includes (at least the way my family makes it) thinly sliced beef, sweet onions, shitake mushrooms, bok choy, green onions, and tofu. It’s something my Dad has made for years and I like to make from time to time for friends. I need to do a post on it one of these days. I’ve made it for Katie and Peter and Aaron before and Paolo has been around when my Dad was in charge. I love it because it’s a cook at the table meal and it’s slow and social.

Deciding to cook that meant a quick trip across town to the Asian food store which is almost always a good idea. I also made a quick call to my parents while we were in the store to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.

While I prepped ingredients the other four sat at the table. Paolo taught the boys how to play cribbage (or started to teach them) and Katie had a glass of Prosecco. I love having people over to dinner like this – such a fun way to spend the weekend. There was so much laughter around my table – just the way I like it.

Early Sunday morning I took Paolo to the airport and made plans to connect again soon. I love that he masterminded this whole adventure. I love his generous spirit. I love that he’s been my friend for 24 years. I love how well he knows me. I love how easy his friendship is and I love that he loves to go to garage sales and thrift stores and brainstorm creative stuff along the way. We are pretty sure he got the best finds yesterday including a Pendleton hat, a big old radio, some suspenders and a wool sport coat (among a few other things).

It was a crazy, unexpected fun few days and I’m so full of gratitude for all the magic.

Hey Mom | Scrapbook Layout

“Hey Mom, I want to have a movie club.”

The best thing happened here last weekend.

Simon had some friends over for a movie club.

For many of you that might not seem like anything to celebrate. But for him, it’s huge. I can count on one hand the number of times he’s invited other kids to come over (or that he’s been invited to other kids houses or birthday parties).

Out of the blue (actually from an episode of Adventure Time) he announced late last week that he wanted to invite friends over and watch a couple movies. I said, “Sure, that sounds fun.” and then figured we’d talk about it again later. He ended up going to school on Friday, writing his phone number of strips of paper and inviting kids from his program at school to come over at 2pm on Saturday.

Three boys ended up here on Saturday afternoon (after some good chats with parents) for a couple movies and popcorn and pizza and hanging out. It was awesome.

And he wants to do it again.

Here’s what I created for this story:

A super simple 2-page, 8.5×11 layout with some really big Silhouette cuts to celebrate a really cool day.

For the first page I set up the title and cut it with the Silhouette (font is Sentinel).

I adhered it on top of some white woodgrain cardstock.

Last week in my supply replenishment video I showed a sticker sheet from Teresa Collins – Something Wonderful Stickers – “love this” and the other stickers I used on this layout are from that sheet.

For the second large cut I used some art from my Thank You Friends set.

You can easily trace these PNG files and use them in the Silhouette software. Check out a tutorial here.

After tracing I rotated the “I heart friends” word art and repeated it over and over and then cut it on kraft cardstock.

I adhered that onto a kraft cardstock background. Love the look of the kraft on kraft.

On top of the kraft cut I added the 4×6 photo, two small stickers from the sticker sheet and my journaling printed on colored vellum from Studio Calico.

On top of the photo I added a cut out from one of the Midnight Project Life core kit cards (“this photograph”).

Go, Simon go!

SUPPLIES

Click on the images to jump to the products.

InLinkz.com

Designer Digitals Quarterly Sale started yseterday (and runs through next week). Now is a great time to stock up on products that are all 40% off. On Saturday I’ll be hosting a chat about the “hybrid life” and giving away a freebie over on Designer Digitals message board. Happy shopping!

Thoughts On Block Scheduling

Months ago, on one of our planning days, Katie and I started talking about the ways we could be more organized and productive with our time and energy during the working hours. We keep fairly regular work hours (9-5) even though we have the flexibility to work at different times. Even with those regular “work hours” I felt we could be more intentional with our time.

Prior to beginning the block schedule we were all over the place during our work day, mostly motivated by whatever was due or whatever I felt like working on at that time. When you work that way there’s really not much time for intentional planning and I always felt like I was putting out fires. It might sound awesome to be able to pick and choose what to work on (and in so many ways it is) but it’s also easy to lose sight of the bigger goals.

Here are some of the reasons I wanted to try implementing a block schedule:

I wanted my evenings and weekends free. There have been times over the years when I’ve had really loose boundaries related to work. I think this might have a lot to do with the fact that the lines between work & life can be easily blurred around here (my life is a big part of my work and my work is a big part of my life). In order to get to the point where I could let go of working in the evenings and on the weekends I needed to make sure that I was finishing what I needed to finish during the hours I have already set aside for work. I also needed to simply decide that was what I was going to do and then follow-through. That in and of itself has been a process for me over time to let go of work-stuff when I should just be focused on living-stuff. Everyone around here benefits when I’m in alignment with that intention.
I wanted to be more organized, intentional and focused with my tasks. I was doing way too many things last minute vs. planning ahead. I was also doing way too many things all at once and jumping from project to project without feeling like I was immersed in anything. The other end of that coin, which I also experienced, was a hyper-focus on one thing or another to the detriment of other things on my list.
I wanted to be working on making stuff vs. wasting time living someone else’s life on Pinterest or Facebook or where ever it was that I was clicking around. As many of you know and have experienced it’s easy to get lost on the internet – finding cool stuff, daydreaming, ordering products, getting inspired (or frustrated), etc. And in reality some of those things are a part of my work life. My problem is that sometimes they begin to take over and I find myself doing way too much of that and not enough time creating my own content (whether that’s developing new classes, products, etc).
I wanted to have the next week of blog posts all planned out (and at least half of them all ready to go) by the time we leave the office on Friday. This plays into the evenings and weekends free portion of my goals. It’s an awesome feeling going into the weekend knowing that I won’t be asking myself what I’ll have on my website for Monday morning on Sunday evening. I strongly dislike that feeling.
I wanted to try something different. I’ve never created and/or maintained a structured work schedule like this and I was curious if it would make a difference for me in both the way I felt about my work day and my overall focus and productivity. There’s already a lot of inherent discipline that goes into working from home (especially in a creative field) and I wanted to see how I would react to the added structure of a time-specific schedule.

With all those things in mind we moved forward with setting up a significantly more structured work day. Here’s a look at that process:

STEP ONE | FIGURE OUT THE TASKS

The first step was to simply make a list of my main tasks/responsibilities. I wrote out a list that included everything I could think of that I generally do from week to week (knowing I’d probably forget something).

From there Katie and I talked about which things I really wanted to spend my time on (in an ideal world where I didn’t have to consider income) and which things would be her responsibility. Getting those two things (generating an income + what I love to do most) into alignment is always the goal.

That discussion was super valuable and it’s one that we will continue to have as we make adjustments and as my business evolves.

At the time we created this first block schedule my tasks included email/admin/social media,  product design, class content creation, Project Life®, traditional layouts, video editing, post writing, unfinished projects, project planning, online inspiration, classroom maintenance, and a few other miscellaneous things.

STEP TWO | CREATE A SCHEDULE

After we had a main list of tasks I made a spreadsheet grid using Numbers (you could easily use Excel or other spreadsheet software) and outlined a Monday through Friday week from 9am to 5pm which are generally the hours we work.

I sat at the computer and we talked through some of the weekly deadlines we have and focused on placing those tasks in the schedule first. Doing this on the computer made the most sense as it was easy to move things around and color-code it all so I could see it right in front of me.

As we talked through creating the schedule we opted for bigger blocks of time (vs. doing one hour for this and one hour for that) to give ourselves some room to see how it went and to enable me to really get into something vs. just scratching the surface. We knew it was likely that other things would come up – either things I forgot or simply things that came up (new project opportunities, things that happen once a month, etc).

On the schedule we designated my job and Katie’s job for any given time period. There were some places we left off her specific job as we anticipated that what she would be doing at those times was cleaning up loose ends and/or catching up on things from earlier in the week.

Here’s what we came up with:

9AM – 10AM | We begin each day with Admin. We both answer emails, check classroom message boards, post to Facebook/Twitter/Google+ and outline our expectations for the day. Starting out this way across the board has helped us stay on track and adjust as we go before things get way too far off track.
10AM – 12:30PM | Monday : Digital Products // Tuesday : Digital Product Examples, Digital Product Post // Wednesday: Project Life (spreads not working on posts) // Thursday: Unfinished Projects // Friday: Post Planing
12:30PM – 1PM | Lunch.
1PM – 1:30PM | Online inspiration/Pinterest posting/browsing and/or prepare inspiration posts. We both thought it was important to actually carve out time for this because we believe there’s value in spending time looking for inspiration and setting aside specific time for it vs. just doing it whenever we felt bored. This doesn’t mean that we don’t click over there at other times too (we both do) but again, it gives us a specific time each day that we know will come again the next day too.
1:30PM – 5PM | There’s a few different blocks in this area that cover the following tasks: Digital Product Sample (Monday, 1:30-2:30PM), New Content Creation/New Class Creation (Monday, 2:30-5PM) // TBA (Tuesday, 1:30-5PM) – this is a catch-all afternoon that can be responsive to whatever the most important task might be such as a blog hop, design team projects, catch-up, etc) // Project Life post (Wednesday, 1-3PM), OLW/Blog Hop/Interviews, etc (Wednesday 3-5PM) // Unfinished Projects (Thursday, 1:30-2:30PM), Post Writing/Video Editing (Thursday 2:30-5pm) // Weekly Layout & Video (Friday, 1:30-5PM)

One thing we added in after the fact was a half-hour for me to work on financial stuff one day each week. This carves out a bit of time for payroll, paying bills, budgeting, reconciling and taking care of any other things along those lines.

STEP THREE | IMPLEMENT

After setting it up on paper we printed out a couple color copies and we put it into practice.

We stuck with it pretty consistently for about three weeks. It was enough time to see that it definitely worked (achieved the goals I was hoping to have happen) when we stuck with it. We both felt organized and motivated and we liked that it was super clear what we should be working on at any given time. Things were getting done and my personal focus increased.

I loved that I was forced to stop at a certain point and move on to something else.

I loved that I could let the other stuff go to focus on whatever is on the schedule (vs. feeling the pressure of all the things on the list because I know there will be time set aside to attack it later in the week). That was huge for me.

I loved that it really makes me think about other opportunities as they pop up. Do they really fit with my current goals? Is taking time away from one of my regular tasks on the schedule worth it to be able to do this other thing?

It was like a breath of fresh air was breathed into this space. Seriously.

And then Katie went on vacation and I did good on my own for a couple of days and then fell off the wagon and focused on whatever I was most interested in at the moment. Ha. It’s really easy for me to fall back into my old semi-organized fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-distracted-ways. Which in reality is okay – the things that needed to get done still got done.

That said, we’re back on it and we’re making some adjustments once again to align it with my current goals. I think that’s one of the things I liked most – it’s a general structure. It helps keep me in line and gives me something to come back to when I get off task. It’s also flexible and can be adjusted as needed.

STEP FOUR | EVALUATE

Now that time has passed since we started and from when we fell off the wagon it’s obvious to both Katie and me that this is a great general structure for us to have.

Here’s some additional observations:

I’ve noticed that we stick with the schedule the best at the beginning of the week and/or in the morning and are most likely to fall off schedule in the second half of the week/second half of the day. This could have something to do with why I’ve not made a lot of progress on those unfinished projects. I should probably keep track of what I end up doing on those Thursday mornings instead of the unfinished projects – what’s taking up that time?
I’ve noticed that there really is time to get all the things done I have on my list if we follow the schedule. Less distraction = more productivity. I know it’s kind of a “duh” concept, but it’s true. And it feels good.
I’ve noticed that I really like having someone keep me on task. It’s awesome driving the ship but sometimes even the captain feels lost. I like having Katie here to help me stay on task and evaluate what really is the next most important thing.
I’ve noticed that when I’m following the schedule it helps in other areas of my life too. Because I feel more productive during the work day I feel more free to spend my evening energy on other things without that running list of work to-do’s in my head. Kids benefit. Garden benefits. My health benefits. Those are all definitely wins.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking at this original schedule now there’s definitely some adjustments that need to be made as we move into the summer months and as project priorities shift.

I’m excited to be back on track. Not in a guilty-I-screwed-it-up-I’m-a-failure way – I simply now know how much the structure really does impact not only our productivity but how I feel about my working hours.

Go Ali & Katie go.

Check out a post Katie did on her blog about what a typical day is like around the office here. http://bit.ly/1kY0Nc1