be AUDacious

10 on Tuesday: the summer to-do list edition

One of the perks of my job is that I do get two months off in the summer. Since I work primarily with middle and high schools and they aren't in session during this time, there's not much for me to do in terms of work. However, there's always plenty to do at home -- things that have been put off until I have more time. Time that rolls around in just a few more days. So here's a peek at the list of things I plan to tackle this summer:

1. Paint the wire shelving unit in the bathroom. This thing is a definite hand-me-down. When we moved into our first apartment here in Murray (after leaving Clinton), we found this shelving unit out on the upstairs balcony. At first glance, we thought it might be a plant rack or something like that, but then it hit me -- it's a shelving unit to go over the toilet in the bathroom. (Which was a good thing, because that bathroom and the one in our current place are both very, very small). It's metal and somewhat rusty in places, so I plan to give it a good sanding and then paint it white.

2. Put all of these layouts into albums. I don't even know how many there are -- a couple hundred, give or take a few. They have been separated into different categories -- layouts for Cam's albums, Cass's albums, the family album, etc. I've experimented with a number of different albums, and I've found that I much prefer to just put them into three-ring binders. Last year, Wal-mart had some really pretty binders in their back-to-school collection. I didn't buy them, but I should have done so. This year, once school supplies are put out, I plan on stocking up and finally getting these layouts finished. The plan is to get a certain color or design for each person's album -- that way, we'll be able to find what we're looking for more quickly. I'll probably also add some type of label to the outside spine -- perhaps to indicate general dates or something like that.

3. Get these prints framed for Cami's room. We bought these from The Black Apple's shop for Christmas, but we still haven't gotten them framed yet. (That's something I was really excited about -- that both the girls got art for Christmas. Here's what Cass got.) At first I thought I'd buy some frames from Target, but then I remembered these older prints in the garage with these ornate gold frames. They'll look great painted white, and they won't cost me anything either. It's a win-win situation.

4. Spruce up these bulletin boards in Cassidy's room. While they're nice and functional right now, I'd like them to be prettier. And Cass has a request as well -- she wants them paint-splattered! The idea is to paint the frames white and let her splatter them with green, blue, and purple. The cork will likely get covered with fabric, though I haven't taken Cass to pick anything out yet. I'm sure it will be something in stripes, though. (There are rumors that Grandad perhaps may be working on some type of storage/display unit for all of her medals -- but I'm not sure about that).

5. Find some way to frame or display these larger prints. One is my Hatch Show print from the Damien Rice concert here on campus almost three years ago. The other is a really cool painting that Cami made in art class. I've got different bits and pieces of the girls' artwork hanging in the house, and I love the personal touch it gives everything.

6. Style this corner cabinet. The Nativity is still there because I haven't put it back into storage, and because I don't know what I want to put in its place. I think I might have to bring my sister in for this project, as she's much better at this type of thing than I am. Usually I'm okay with styling, but the triangular space is just throwing me off. This will likely be a project that will bleed over into other areas of the house, especially since I just plan on shopping what I already have (and finding a new place for the dragon collection should prove...interesting.)

7. Create a new pair of kitchen curtains from this vintage tablecloth. My mom had this tucked away, and I'm so glad she asked if I wanted it. It fits in nicely with my kitchen plans -- and the colors pick up the color of my new bread tin and some other vintage goodies really nicely.

 

8. Fill these photo frames. I've had them hanging on the wall for at least a year now, and while some are full, some still feature the generic kids from the store in them. The plan is to rework them all and fill them with a mixture of family and travel photos.

9. Clean and organize the mudroom. I'm not even going to show you a picture of this space. It's a small room that's between our garage and our laundry room, with a separate door opening to the back deck. It closes off from the main house completely and it's not airconditioned or heated, so it's really just a staging area for outdoor equipment and shoes, or storage for items that don't need to be put completely away (in the garage, for example).

10. Have a yardsale. We finally moved all of our "extra" belongings out of storage and into the garage. Not only are we saving some bucks now, we can also see that most of this stuff is just that -- stuff that we don't want or need anymore. While there are a few things we plan to keep, most of it will be finding new homes.

Hopefully I'll be able to check back in during August and update you on the progress of these items, in another 10 on Tuesday post. What kinds of makeover or other projects do you planned for summer?

blueprints: tools for managing a long-term album project

In my last blueprints post, I set a number of "next steps" for myself towards the completion of the girls' school albums. For quick reference, here they are again:

1. Sort through my "finished digital pages" folder and upload layouts that need to be printed and added to this album.
2. Create a set of "grade level intro pages" that collects basic information about each school year.
3. Sort through my photo folders and determine which photos need to be scrapped (some will be stories that stand alone about the school year, others will support the memorabilia in the album). Use sticky notes on the memorabilia pages to note accompanying stories. Create a master list to help keep this organized.

Today, I want to share with you the tools and processes I've created to handle those three steps. While I'm nowhere close to being finished with this album, that's okay, because by necessity this album has to be an ongoing project -- both girls are still in school. And even though I'm not "caught up," I do have a process in place, which means that I am working on this project as I go, instead of allowing these things to just pile up.

Let's just tackle these in order, shall we?

1. Sort through my "finished digital pages" folder and upload layouts that need to be printed and added to this album.

This is in process. Uploading takes a little bit of time, but it's one of those tasks that I can start and then walk away from my laptop to do other things while it's going on. I have a couple of different folders that hold my finished layouts, and once I upload them to my printer of choice (I use Scrapping Simply), then I make a backup to my EHD and remove them from my laptop. Once those layouts get printed, the backup files are deleted; there's no need to keep the digital file once I have a hard copy. For more information on printing, I recommend this post at The Daily Digi, as well as this one.

2. Create a set of "grade level intro pages" that collects basic information about each school year.

After sorting through all of my memorabilia for each grade level, I realized that there were some basic things that I needed to capture about each year. The easiest way to do this, I thought, was to make a simple 2-page template that allowed me to include the following information: a school photo, the grade/school/year, and general information about the school year.

The template is designed so that the main photo and school information goes on the left page. On the right side, there's room for three more photos (I always seem to have some random extra photos that don't really fit with anything else floating around), and plenty of journaling room. In terms of journaling, I plan to use the following categories: teachers, schedule, friends, sports, clubs, awards, trends, field trips, and favorites. I fully intend to have the girls fill out this information in their own handwriting (which means I'll probably build my pages as hybrid pages, since I'll need to add the school pictures each year, too). If you'd like to download this template, it's available here.

3. Sort through my photo folders and determine which photos need to be scrapped (some will be stories that stand alone about the school year, others will support the memorabilia in the album). Use sticky notes on the memorabilia pages to note accompanying stories. Create a master list to help keep this organized.

I've created one more simple download for you to use to help keep your stories-in-process organized and ready to scrap.It will easily coordinate with the other graphic organizers I've designed for album planning, as well as the basic layout planner I created for this class.

The download allows you to keep track of the basic idea of the story that needs to be told, as well as the photo file names (and folder locations) and the related memorabilia. This way, you can jot down these stories as you work through your folders/content, and then scrap them as the time becomes available. Keeping a list of topics to scrap on hand has always been a real life-saver for me, because it means that when I sit down to scrap, I don't waste any time trying to decide what I want to scrap about.

Download School stories graphic organizer

Here's a sample of what this page would look like filled out -- I've printed several of these pages and tucked them into a 3-ring kraft binder where I keep a number of scrapbooking tools and notes.

With these tools and processes in hand, I'm finally on my way to getting caught up on the girls' schools albums. You know, out of all the boxes of photos and papers and items that my mom has stored away in her ceder chest, the thing I love to look at the most is my School Days book (one of those fill-in-the-blank kind from Lillian Vernon or something like that -- does anybody else have one of those?) I think that's why getting this album planned and underway is so important to me.

As always, Liz and I welcome your questions and comments about this album series. You can leave them here on the blog, or you can stop by our Formspring sites as well:

ask Audrey  |  ask Liz

favorite layouts of 2009

This was a year that saw a lot of inconsistency for me, in terms of creating scrapbook pages. I find it hard to find time to scrap for myself when I'm designing, because there's the constant push to get new product out on the market. I do feel like I really found my style -- I've experimented with so many different styles -- but the layouts I've done over the past 6 months make me happier than any I've done in a long, long time.

I have a number of scrapbooking goals for this upcoming year that I wanted to share with you as well. I've limited these to 3 -- I could add goal after goal, but that wouldn't be realistic. These 3, though, are really most important to me.

1. Scrap one layout each week, just for me.
2. Post one layout challenge on my blog each week.
3. Create 2 mini-albums of my San Francisco and my Washington DC photos.

Hopefully, I will be able to do more scrapbooking than just one layout per week -- I do still have some CT duties. However, it's important to me that I still just scrap those pages that I have stories for, rather than doing 'fluff' pages just to push product.

As for the layouts, here are my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Getting this story told for Cass's album was really important to me. Plus, I love that I stepped out of my comfort zone and did a multiphoto, 2-page layout.

 

2. This was another design that I really liked -- plus, the color scheme is one of my very favorites.

 

3. I don't usually scrap with themed kits, but for this page, this kit was perfect. Plus, it's one of my most favorite kits that I've designed -- I just really like how everything turned out.

 

4. Another one where the story and the photo combine to really capture her personality.

 

5. This is one of those stories I had to immediately get on paper, and I'm so glad I did. Plus, I love that little photo of her.

 

6. Sometimes you just want to scrap pretty pictures, like this one. Plus, I had a couple of techniques I wanted to play with, and this kit made that possible.

 

7. This color scheme is what comes to mind when I think of her -- and that baby picture? Oh, I miss her at that age!

 

8. Another birthday layout -- this one I love for several reasons: the color orange, the fun design, and the journaling list.

 

9. Remember what I said about scrapping pretty photos? 'Nuff said.

 

10. Another layout with my designs -- and another one that I just love for so many reasons...the photos, the journaling, the embellishments. I don't do enough pages about this special guy, so the ones I do scrap are pretty high on the list.

goals for 2010

I spent the day finding new homes for all the wonderful gifts we received during Christmas and birthdays. That's something that hits me immediately when I walk in the door after being away with family for the holidays -- the urge to find a place for everything, and to get rid of any things that we have replaced or outgrown or simply don't need any longer. Perhaps it is the idea of a new year and new beginnings that manifests in me as a need to clean and de-clutter everything. But I spent the day happily puttering away, finishing up the last of the laundry (thankfully most of it was done at the in-law's house so we didn't come home with bags crammed full of dirty laundry), doing some grocery shopping (our cupboards were bare, as was our poor refrigerator), and taking down the Christmas decorations.

When I sent Chris to the storage unit with the Christmas decorations, I asked him to bring back this oak library table. While I was growing up, this table served as a makeshift island in our kitchen. I inherited it from Mom when she moved to a smaller house, and for a while it sat in my craft room. Then we moved to a smaller apartment and it was relegated to the storage unit. I'm not sure why I never considered using it as a desk, since it is the perfect size, especially when paired with my $2.00 orange chair that I picked up earlier this fall. I'm also now the proud owner of two orange milk glass Pottery Barn lamps (you can see one of them on my desk) -- I made a visit to the Pottery Barn Outlet store while I was in Memphis and scored those two lamps with my Christmas money from mom. Words can't even begin to explain how thrilled I was! They'll eventually go on either side of our bed, but I need new (or new-to-us, as they'll likely be thrifted) nightstands before that happens. Regardless, my bedroom plans are coming right along!

Those bedroom plans are just part of my goals for 2010. I have a number of things that I want to do this year, and they are tied pretty closely to my "one little word." I'm choosing the word INTENTIONAL again, just as I did last year. For me, it is a word that continues to help me focus on the things I am doing and the reasons why I am doing them. It's about doing things with purpose, fully thinking through my actions, and then moving ahead with the action. It's about being present and fully aware of what I am doing and saying, which I fully believe leads to a fuller life.

This year, I want to sell my photographs. I want to exercise. I want to be more aware of what I eat. I want to redecorate my bedroom. I want to travel to Ireland. I want to grow my digital design business. I want to read more books. I want to camp more than three times. I want to spend more time one-on-one with the girls. I want to finish a knitting project. I want to paint our living room. I want to develop a "style." I want to take better care of myself. I want to spend more time with my husband. I want to buy a new camera. I want to take a photo daily. I want to laugh as often as I can. I want to see a concert.

it's official!

Yesterday was the December 2009 commencement program at Murray State University, and although I didn't walk in the ceremony, my name was on the list of Master's Degree candidates. I have officially completed my Master's Degree in Secondary Education with an Endorsement in Gifted Education! Woohoo!

It feels good to have that degree completed; of course, that means it is time to go ahead and start working on my Rank 1, but I am planning on taking the spring semester off. It will be nice to have no classes to worry about for a bit, at least until May rolls around. Then I'll be taking (as long as things go according to plan) a 600 level course in Gifted Education in Ireland! I absolutely can't wait!

'cause that's what life does

I thought, with summer quickly approaching (the last day of school is Monday!), that it would be nice to do a quick check-in on some of the long-term projects going on around here. Once school ends, my work schedule will change too. Because the work I do involves high schools, there's not much for me to do (other than prep for the upcoming year) during the summer months. As a result, my work week decreases from 5 days in the office to just 3 a week. Of course, I'm responsible for still checking in via email during those two off days, but being able to do that from home makes such a difference in all the things I'm able to complete.

Our garden is coming along. We've had a good bit of a struggle with it. We got everything planted about a month ago, and then it proceeded to rain for two weeks straight. We lost all our carrots, spinach, most of our cucumbers, and most of my sunflowers. Luckily, we had enough seeds left over to go back in and plant more beans and onions. Everything seems to have fared nicely -- we recently got another bout of rain and everything just shot up over the weekend. I'm excited to watch it grow; I know that not everything will go perfectly, especially since this is our first year, but it's a process that I'm just enjoying as it happens.

My knitting has fallen to the wayside for the last month, as has the embroidery. I haven't given up on them; it's just a matter of finding a little spare time to work on them. What I'd like to do is ride up to campus with the girls on my off days and sit and knit or embroider while they play on the quad. There's so much great open space to run and play in, and the bike rides will be nice exercise too.

Speaking of exercise, Chris and I have fallen off the wagon. However, we just did some rearranging in our bedroom and made some room for the weight bench. Now that my thyroid meds are closer to the appropriate levels, I'll finally be able to see some results. Plus, we'll have some built-in exercise time in the evenings while Cass is at JV soccer practice.

I'm making good progress on my reading list too. I set an informal goal to read 96 books for 2009; I'm sitting at 48 right now, with two in progress. I'm hoping to have time to do some more formal-type reviews on the blog; we'll see how that goes.

I've been toying with the idea of making a list of things we want to do this summer with Chris and the girls; Erika does this with her family and I think it's a fantastic idea. What about you -- what's on your summer to-do list?