Summer mini album...

Hello, I'm finally back to share with you something! Before I do that, I should say - baby is A LOT of work, but we love him so much! I think he is the most kissable baby in the world!

Anyway, I've been joining Ali Edwards and hundreds of other scrapbookers in December Daily challenge for three years and I always loved it. This year, I really wanted to highlight our summer in a separate mini album. I wanted it to be a project of it's own. I wasn't going to make a page for every day of the summer, but wanted to highlight some little everyday moments that would bring memories back when we look through the book. I have about 30 pages all together in it.

For the longest time I wanted to add sewing to my mini books but didn't know a good way to do it, since sewing shows on the other side. So I came up with an idea that solves that problem - folded page. I started with a 12x12 pattern paper and trimmed four inches off the top:

 

and then folded the piece in the middle, which gave me an 8x6 page:

For the base of my album I used a collection of kraft colored paper from My Mind's Eye:

I added lined paper to each side of my page for easy journaling, and punched holes:

Identifying those little stories, picking out a photo and arranging it with a little pattern paper to make it more fun was my favorite par of the project:

After adding a photo, I stitched around white paper on all of my pages, and randomly added more stitching on other elements of design:

 Since most of my design happened to be on the outside edge of the page, I used a piece of paper to glue inside the folded page, which served two purposes - it gave the book a little more even shape and reinforced the holes:

Here are a few more pages from the album:

 
I also added a kraft envelope to the album,

to include some memorabilia like a drawing from my four year old or a note from my teen, or a business card from the place where we ate:

I wanted this project to be quick and easy, so I'm adding a hand written journaling to the book, unlike any of my other projects.

That's it for today. I might come back to share the rest of the pages from this album-journal. 

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you soon!

Last few days

Hello! Our kids are enjoying their last few days of summer vacation. Pretty sad to except it but it's true. There was still a mile long list that I wanted to do this summer, but that list would have to wait now. We are taking it easy with something very simple but a little special every day like a picnic, sleepovers, family games or just a trip to a local Dunking Donuts...

I'm sure I've mentioned it here before that I don't have the best memory, and if it wasn't for Project Life I would've not remembered half the stuff that happens. Love to get the reminder of my blessings in form of pictures! I love getting new stack of pictures! I almost immediately put part of them into PL album and choose what I want to scrapbook next. I order them every two to three weeks. This time there were pictures for five weeks for PL album and some extra for layouts:

As you may know I don't have a whole lot of free time anymore but I still try to work at my corner in little chunks of time. I have four projects sitting on my table waiting to be finished. Nothing to share just yet, but there will be some blogging in the near future. Still overly busy next two weeks over here.

With the thought of back to school for my kids, I'm thinking - back to blogging for me.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon! Hopefully with a new project!

Bittersweet...

I know we all have those moments when a photo, a phrase, a quote or music affects our emotions, makes us stop and think... that's what happened to me when I saw this picture -

It may not look like anything special to you, but I just kept starring at it and flood of bittersweet emotions filled my heart... I felt blessed for beautiful children God gave us... I felt sad they they grow up way too fast... I felt happy that we could spend a day together with my sister... And I felt lonely, knowing that my older girls are having more fun spending time with people their age and they don't need their mother by their side like my four-year-old does... I felt lucky that all of my siblings live withing 35 min drive... and I could not understand how come we don't see each other often enough... I enjoyed this beautiful weather of summer days... but in the back of my mind the feeling of the summer coming to the end, didn't let me enjoy it as much as I wanted... I was glad that it's always pretty easy to get this group photographed, and it was pretty sweet that they even volunteered for the next few shots with addition of their imagination to them... but it was bitter to see how fast the time has gone since we spent a similar day in the same backyard a few years ago, which REALLY seemed like yesterday -

... Do you ever have those moments? Do ever think that life is flying by too fast? Do you think this summer is missing a month or two? Like never before, for me this summer went by too fast. I never felt this way but I would've loved to start summer all over again. If there was a button I could press to have that happened I would've not thought twice.

And here are a few more pictures from "YESTERDAY"

And "TODAY"...

I think photography is the most amazing thing invented ever. Love it and appreciate it SO much! I think that love of photographs is what keeps me going with Project Life. Yes, I'm up to date with pictures, a little behind on journaling, but that can be fixed any time.

So, that was the reason for my absence. I wanted to spend every moment possible with my kids enjoying summer. I cut back on the internet time, didn't blog for a week and didn't do much cleaning.

During this break though, I have been thinking nonstop about scrapbooking. Does it really matter that much if papers on the page match perfectly? Do I really have to make it innovative every time? Will anybody care if one of the lines on the page is not perfectly straight? All I wanted is to FILL my albums with memories. THAT is the only thing that matters.

Of course, I do get joy just making pages too, but I should let go of some perfectionism. So I was finally scrapping again! For two days in the row. That felt so good! I'll have a new project to share with you soon.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll see you soon!

Olympics

Good morning! Still no LO to share today, but I have started the second one already. I guess I was coming to working with a kit idea with an Olympic spirit! Just can't find a moment to finish a page right now. Hopefully I'll be able to do that soon. Even though I don't have anything to share here just yet, I am constantly taking more pictures, thinking about new pages to do and stories to tell.

We don't usually watch TV here. Most of the time we even forget we have a TV. That old box in the basement just stands there collecting dust. With the Olympic games on, it's a little different. There's something so inspiring about Olympic games that we had to wipe off some dust. Well, that might be  part of the reason that not much is getting done here right now...

Our kids always loved to play volleyball, but after watching some volleyball played by world champions they decided to improve their skills. Now, every time they get a free minute, that ball gets thrown in the air... It reminded me of myself and my sisters when we were little. Every time after watching figure skating we would practice wearing slippers on the carpet, thinking it looked just as awesome... Yeah, there's no limit to childhood imagination.

Don't you think these four have gold medal smiles on? Who knows, maybe someday this team will be recognized by more then just our neighbors. Poor neighbors, they can always tell when our team is in training session...

Sometimes they reward themselves for playing a lot on a hot summer day with a perfect peach smoothie. I love to participate in this part too! It is sooo delicious and very fat free. Seriously. It tastes so rich, but has only 3 to 5 grams of fat per glass!

 

This one is a little pink in color because Alyona added some strawberries, but all you need to make it is ice, peaches, Greek yogurt, honey and milk. We made that smoothie with mango and strawberries too. It is so cold and delicious! 

Do you watch Olympics? If you do, what is your favorite sport?

And the answer is...

Thank you every one who responded to my previous post and took part in guessing what the picture meant. I enjoyed reading all of your guesses! Well, here is the story. I went to work in the garden and left the baby with Alena. Of course, he woke up immediately after I went outside and got my hand dirty. He loves to be outside, so Alena came up with a great invention - she put him in his car seat and placed it on a swing.

He really seemed to enjoy it! I thought it was very clever and wanted to take a picture of them... for the PL album... Yes, that's where the other picture happened. All it means is - I don't want my picture taken, I have a bad hair day.Then Katya went outside. Thankfully she had a good hair day, so we got a picture of her.

 

By the way, please notice that the skirt she is wearing was made by her. It may not be very wearable, but she is getting there! She made four skirts that day... Never, even in the most productive day I made four of anything.

I'm trying to work on that first page in little chunks of time. Hopefully it will be done soon. But I found another reasons I was afraid to do a LO again - my very last page before having a baby was a total miss. Totally not my style and I didn't enjoy working on that one. I don't think it's going to get into my album.

Have a great day everyone!

Was hoping...

Yes, I was hoping to come back with a page today. Nope, that didn't happen. It's quite inconvenient to scrapbook with one hand. At least I can type and look through picture folders on my computer with one hand. I guess I could share a few random things - a tip, favorite photo and a question.

I used to spend a lot of time going around the cake trying to cover it evenly. Last time I just sprinkled coconut flakes on top to cover all the uneven parts and it looked nice and fluffy. So, if you ever had a similar problem, try that. I'm definitely doing it again.

 

My sweet little almost four year old feels the need to bring me flowers every day. I don't think there was a day this summer that she didn't find a flower to give me. They may not be the fanciest, but every time she does that, it touches my heart. Isn't that so sweet of her? Here is the smallest one of all, but it's still a flower. I got this one yesterday.

I love teenagers! I think they are so fun. I am a proud parent of one. Yes, we have a variety here - teenager, second child, toddler and a baby! Let's play a little game. I will leave you with a question - what does this picture mean? 

Will be waiting for your guesses. And I'll see you soon! Hopefully tomorrow.

Have a great day!