In the Storm

pin action | diy photo wall

Awhile back Elsie over at A Beautiful Mess posted her and her husbands diy Instax Wallpaper they put up in their new house.

a beautiful mess

And I fell in love.

Everyday I visited her site, found the blog post of the diy wall and enjoyed the view, all the while imagining my living room blue wall being covered with photos.

About a week later Jeff and I were talking while I was surfing the web and I purposefully visited A Beautiful Mess and showed Jeff the diy wall.

Then I asked him if it would be alright if we did that to the blue wall in the living room.

I held my breath.

And he said yes.

For the next several months I formulated a plan of how I would go about doing this. I knew I couldn't afford 'wallpaper' like Elsie had done. We didn't have connections to have printed the photos for cheap.

When my daughter Ashley came home for a couple months we continued talking about the wall and I began hunting through my photos.

I knew I would use 4 x 4 pictures with a thin white border. After going through my photoshop elements actions I decided on a 'colorized' action from the Pioneer Woman that she had offered free when she still had her photography blog.

I would need over 900 photos to cover the entire wall.

I got started uploading photos to Walgreens, finding a great deal on prints, and having the beginning photos printed.

Then my sister Paula visited for one day.

Between my sister, my daughter, and I we came up with a more feasible dIY.

Then I became super excited. This wall was going to make a statement. Huge impact!

The entire wall of photos became a 4 foot by 8 foot wall of photos centered horizontally on my blue wall.

And I look at it all the time. Giddy doesn't come close to how I feel about this wall. Ecstatic. Energized. Proud.

Jeff 'built' the 4' x 8' frame, painted the molding to match the other walls in the room; Ashley and I put up the 240+ photos.

My grandson Ian, especially likes to walk by pointing out everyone calling out their names.

I love this diy project. It is one of my favorites.

I'm not sure if I can top this DIY but I'm sure gonna' try.

52gratitudes | 26

06.26.13 | currents

sitting at work.

watching the weather - and What Women Want.

wearing sweatpants, tennis shoes, tank top, and short sweater.

drinking water.

anticipating working full time. so excited about the prospect.

needing to move more.

studying the book of Esther - again.

making lists: crafts, home, homeschool, Meteorology class, scrapbooking

missing my grandsons already - and they haven't even left yet.

planning a crafting week while my men are away.

needing to stay focused, disciplined, on track - in order to get everything done

loving the idea of weekends free for family.

wednesday, june 26, 2013, 9:34pm

 

project life | week 25

I made this weeks Project Life, Week 25, super simple - again. It is so much more than embellishments and 3x4 or 4x6 cards to me. It's documenting life. While I know some weeks I do better at both, or neither, I'm telling the overall story of our life. The week we're in right now, happening now is the half-way point of project life. So far, Lord willin' I won't get behind. But, with big changes happening in our life in July I'm wondering if a week won't go by that I'll just not be able to keep up.

This week was definitely a 'summer' week. We spent time outside playing and berry pickin' and workin' outside the barn, and lawn mowing, and just enjoying the time - when it wasn't raining of course.

Our momento from the week was definitely blackberry pickin' at the Bamboo Farm. We came home with an enormous amount of blackberries, which we picked in under an hour. We also enjoyed the Bamboo Farm itself, checkin' out their adorable waterfall and lilypad farm. I'll have to make an insert now that I think of it of those gorgeous flowers and plants.

I began a photo wall project and just about finished it by the end of the week. The boys pulled out their BB guns - wow - it's been awhile. They also gave time to their nephews shootin' with them. Just a good week.

Project Life is a solution-based approach to scrapbooking that was created to simplify the process in order to allow you more time to enjoy life! It requires no glue, no scissors, no tools, and no skills of any kind

hello monday | it's been awhile saying hello

hello monday. it's good to be back saying hello.

hello to errands today. walgreens, tuttle, fresh market, panera - maybe...

hello to finishing my photo wall project and sharing it later this week.

hello to an extra day of work this week.

hello to son-in-law arriving at the end of the week. Ashley is chomping at the bit and counting down the days

hello to purging and organizing for my high school meteorology class i teach.

hello to planning craft projects while all my boys are away for boy scout summer camp

hello to saving money. first up is for laminate flooring.

hello to macaroni grill's penne rustica. I found the recipe and I'm serving it up today.

hello to moving more this week. i really need to do this. for my health, heart, and spiritual well-being

hello to finishing the Great Gatsby. we should finally finish this week.

hello to a quiet monday and a awesome week...

 

and I'm linking with Lisa.

 

 

 

 

digital scrapbooking again.

"Jeff is always teaching John and Jarrod life skills. So when the Boy Scouts need more firewood, and Jeff recently cut trees down at his work, it became another round of log splitting - tag teamin; and a new log fire building lesson: starting a fire in a log. June 2013"

I could probably put a hundred pages together of these Life Lessons. The boys are tremendously blessed to have a father who can teach them skills that many today - even adults - have know idea how to do.

"All day long and even the day before Ian would acknowledge his 5th birthday with CAKE, PRESENTS, and BALLOONS. The day turned out grand with a trip to Jump n Jack for a couple hours of play, then open presents, and sing Happy Birthday befre digging in to an ice cream cake. June 2013"

I love Yin templates. She makes putting digital pages together easy. I just drop in the pictures, add paper and embellishments and call it done. I'm a firm believer in making the process of scrapbooking clean and simple.

52gratitudes | 25

real right now | life as i know it

right now it is but weeks before Ashley and the boys leave to go back home. It has been wonderful having them here. But, then they head on to San Antonio, to their new home.

right now I have paperwork that needs to be completed. Who really enjoys paperwork?

right now I am still drinking water only (plus my morning coffee). No soda. Nada. Zip. Zilch. None. And I still love water. Where have you been all my life?

right now I have been offered the full time position at work. It's Monday - Thursday, 2pm - 12 am. I'm takin' it! God's amazing on the timing and sorting out being able to work full time and still homeschool.

right now I'm putting together the remainder of the 9th grade record keeping. And preparing their 10th grade school year.

right now we got John and Jarrod's 9th grade test results. They did a wonderful job. Except for Spelling. I'm sorry - I laughed. We are a family trial of horrid spellers (except me - mostly). But, overall they did superb. Just pretty darn proud. And we didn't teach the test. I'm most excited about their high Math scores which affirms the Math curriculum we are using is working - as is most everything else.

right now I have some health issues that are frustratingly annoying.

right now I need to put some more pages together, digitally of course. Lots of pictures to wade through.

right now life is good.

project life | week 24

Super simple week of white and black. I gave a title and small line journal to the photos. We had a couple 'events' this week that needed their own so I added a couple inserts for the second week in a row.

I really spent very little time on this week. I am having such difficulty spending alot of time on the computer because it causes neck and back issues. It means putting pages together simply. And yet, I'm very ok with that.

Gotta' say that we've had some really neat family time with Ash and the boys here. It keeps our family hoppin'.

The first insert is inspired by many farings on pinterest through the project life boards. I used a Cathy Zielske 6 x 12 template and uploading photos of Ian's big day. We went to Jump n Jacks for some really fun play - and tired them out. Ian associates his birthday with cake, balloons, and presents - and he got all three!

While Jeff's mom was here we took some family photos the night before she left. Not great photos but ok with black and white.

I journaled our week on another Ali Edwards long journaler. I'm sure I forgot much of the week but captured just the highlights. That seems to be my norm - until I take out a journal sheet and start documenting each day as it happens...

Even still I love Project Life and all I have documented of our life this year.

 

'traditional' digital layout | tea room savannah

When my sister was visiting recently I shared with her some visual training of digital scrapbooking as she is considering semi-crossing over to the darkside and adding digital scrapbooking to her repertoire. She's an awesome traditional scrapbooker, but like most people who go digital find it is cheaper and can be super fun. I have found this to be true. Although, like anything almost, I can get caught up in the latest and greatest trend and products.

Anyways, her visit sparked a flame for traditional digital scrapbooking which I haven't done much of this year since beginning Project Life. So...

With a Yin template I quickly put together a 'traditional', as opposed to a project life, digital layout of our recent visit to the Savannah Tea Room. While Ashley has been here my mom came up from Florida and stayed for a week. We, of course, made reservations for the Tea Room. It is one of our most favorite places to visit, especially when Mom is here. We enjoyed some girl time, some delectable tea of Winter Solstice and Emperors Bride and a tasty lunch of quiche, salad, and scones. Ashley came home with samplings of both teas that we have enjoyed immensely.