Multi-tasking

2010 is going to be a really big year for me. Now that the kids are back at school I am determined to declutter the house. We're having a car boot sale (but indoors) at our Guide hall in March, and I want to get rid of lots of stuff that I've been hoarding for years!

So ... it's time to follow those Flylady routines and get stuck in. I cleaned out my kitchen drawers ... it was actually easy! Yay for me! I gave away almost everything on Freecycle, which made hubby very happy LOL.

Not only am I working on my home, but also on myself. I have 35kg/77lb to lose, and it's going to be a hard slog ... but I'll stick to it this year (the doctor said scary things).

I am also working hard on design work for Brandcorp and Australian Girl Dolls. I'm designing sewing patterns for AGD, designing crochet patterns for Milford Threads, making easy projects for Francheville's scrapbooking range (and Craft Affair), painting planes & trucks for the Easy Peasy brand, and lots of other fun stuff.

And let's not forget my exciting return to teaching! I am running a series of Guilt-free Scrapbooking classes at Erina Scrapbook Store on the NSW Central Coast.

Lastly, my charity work for this year is split between the local Girl Guides as I continue as Treasurer, and Southern Cross Kids Camps (check them out by clicking here), making 6x6 layouts for the kids and helping spread the word and encourage other scrapbookers to help too.

Yeah ...it's going to be a really exciting year :D

How can one be busy AND lazy consecutively?

I'm not sure, but I think I'm doing it!

* Sleeping in, but not too late.
* Doing jigsaw puzzles.
* Minimal time running errands.
* Watching the kids play nicely.
* Working on Christmas 2011 projects for Milford threads (see pic). Yes ... you read that right!

I've got a lot to do this year, and I'm doing my best to balance out the holidays. It's nice :)

My last challenge with The Town Scrapper

Our challenge this week was to use our favourite Victoria Case stamp. Clearly mine has been Made With Love Lola ... I use it more than any other!

And this week it is time for me to say my farewells. This is my final post as a member of The Town Scrapper design team. I learned a lot from this experience, met some amazing card & copic artists and pushed myself to do things I would not have tried otherwise. I'm very grateful to Phebe for having me as a team member for the past 6 months, and to all the girls for their friendship, inspiration and encouragement.

Guilt-free Scrapbooking - my first class!

I'm not taking it (though heaven knows I carry much guilt about my large scrapbooking stash). No, I am teaching this one. It is Tech Week at Erina Scrapbook store, and we have laptops, ladies! I am going to teach you how to make awesome custom labels so you can start to get your supplies organised. Out of sight is out of mind, girls, so let's get organised so that we can all pursue our fave hobby without the guilt :D

Erina Scrapbook Store
Wednesday 6 January, 7-9pm
Saturday 9 January, 9:30-11:30am
COST $25 per person

Check out the brochure for January classes by clicking here.

You can find the Erina Scrapbook Store at:
2/203 The Entrance Road
ERINA NSW 2250
4365 0770

Come along and have some fun!

My Project 365

I've mentioned on Twitter and Facebook and a few people in real life, that I am taking on Project 365 for 2010. My mother doesn't see the point, and hubby is still rolling his eyes at me ... but I am persisting ... and here is why ...
1. I want my album to be really interesting, so I feel motivated to achieve something cool every day.
2. I am planning a very, very full-on year in 2010 for my health, my home and my career. I want to record them so I can look back on my success.
3. I want my girls to know that when you set your mind to something, you most certainly can succeed, especially where dreams coming true are concerned. This will be a permanent record of that.

I looked at every P365 layout I could find on 2peas, and that was when reality really hit home. If I tried to do this with my copious collection of papers & embellishments, it simply wouldn't get done. Unless it's work, I baulk at the scrapbooking table. It's been over 6 months since I created a layout for my album. Tragic. I am more a digital girl now.

So here's my approach:
1. One week to a page keeps it compact.
2. Use one gorgeous digital kit so that the whole thing is nice and uniform.
3. I created templates for my daily journalling & photo so all I have to do is drop in the pic and type a little at night. They can then sit on the thumb drive until I happen to be printing photos.
4. Every file has the date on it, so when I get them back from the printer I just have to trim them and stick them on the right page.
5. I spent an entire day creating my week titles and templates. I printed them all today and stuck them down on the cardstock.
6. See previous post about why you should approach post-bound albums with caution.

Credit where credit is due:
Colourful kit: One Perfect Day by ShellyRae
Lined paper: Homework Fun by Mushy
Fonts: Freeze! and Pea Jennifer
Adobe Photoshop ... what can't it do?

My pieces are 5.25" x 2.5" and I can fit 8 on a single 12"x12" page.

Feel free to ask me any questions :)

Post-bound albums, oh how I loathe them!

I set up my Project 365 album today. I figured I would use one of the dozen empty post bound albums I own. Here's a synopsis of my afternoon.

"OK, I've cut up all the week titles, and the first page is almost finished. I'm awesome! I'll just get down one of those albums off the top of the bookshelf. I wonder why I have so many? Hmmm ... 20 pages, I guess I need to put in another 6. Isn't it nice that they put in those post extender thingies."

... and that's where it pretty much fell apart. The posts wouldn't go together, and then when I realised that I'd forgotten to put the spine binding thing in, and had to take it all apart I couldn't get the screw tops off the posts! Hubby helped for about 2 minutes then declared "I didn't sign up for this" and left.

*INSERT BAD WORDS HERE*

Eventually I got everything in place. "Yes!" I said with great triumph, followed by "Crap". There were only 10 pages in the album, not 20. I undid it and started again. I left the spine out again. I undid it and started again. "Yes!" I said ... and started putting the pages in the sleeves. You guessed it ... I was one short *insert more bad words here*. I undid the bugger again, did it back up, trying my best to keep as calm as possible whilst hubby roared with laughter at me from the lounge room.

It is finished.
It is done.
I am going to sell off all my empty post bound albums at the next garage sale, because I never EVER want to go through that again.

*sigh*.