Nihao, Cupcake!

FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop - May 2013

Hello! And welcome to the May FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop. We are a group of bloggers who are committed to taking one photo a month of our families. For accountability & inspiration, we share them during our monthly blog hop. This project was originally inspired by Tara Whitney. If you'd like to join us, please send me an email (link on my blog sidebar).

We have a lot of family photos this month!

We started our month off with a very special occasion. Our youngest son received his First Holy Communion! We all posed in front of this pretty wall right after the ceremony - all of us in our best clothes! I don't think we've ever all looked so nice since the boys were babies & toddlers!

Then, we went camping...

French toast for lunch cooked over a camp fire. We were meant to have it for breakfast, but because we spent the previous night in a hotel (I got sick) our meal was delayed.

We balanced the camera on one of the fence posts for this one amongst the giant Sequoias.

Another meal time timer photo - this time chicken & dinner biscuits all cooked in (and on) our cast iron dutch oven (also pictured in the photo).

A crazy photo taken at the base of a Giant Sequoia tree during our hike on the last day of our trip.

We ended the day's hike with this incredible view just before we took the lovely drive back home.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't miss any of the other inspiration at the rest of the blogs. Next on the hop is Ruth.

The other Blog Hop Participants:

Margie     http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog

Ruth         http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com

Patricia    http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/ 

Louise     http://www.scrapbook-me.blogspot.co.uk/

Diana      www.thestudio56.com

Camping & Cooking; Cooking & Camping

Over spring break our family went camping. Our boys missed it so much during the four years we lived in China. Although, we came home twice a year, there never was enough time to camp.

One of the things we discovered right before moving to China was cast iron Dutch oven cooking. A friend taught us how to do it before we moved. We were excited to try it again during this trip five years after the last time! 

We forgot how fun and easy it is! You can cook almost anything using a Dutch oven. We made french toast, biscuits, dinner rolls, chicken, potatoes, vegetables, curry, rice, & cake. Can you believe that?

If you like camping, cooking over a fire or even using briquettes, I strongly recommend giving a Dutch oven a try. You will not be disappointed. I won't go into the details since I am no expert and there are lots of great websites out there with wonderful information. Just google Dutch Oven cooking - you won't be disappointed. 

And the kids just couldn't believe we were cooking our own food over a real campfire.

We didn't cook everything in the dutch oven, however. I made my kids this fun & tasty Banana S'more using a sheet of aluminum foil and the heat from our fire (the last night) & the heat from our white hot briquettes (the first night).

It tastes much better than it looks!

To make a Banana S'more, all you need is a banana, knife, mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. Of course if you forget your mini-marshmallows like I did, you can cut up your large marshmallows.

Simply slice your banana lengthwise with the skin still on. Gently squeeze the banana from the long ends to get the slit to open slightly.

Stuff the opening with a few mini chocolate chips. Add some mini marshmallows. 

Sprinkle in a few more mini chocolate chips.

Carefully wrap the entire banana in foil.

Then either set your foil-wrapped banana directly on top (or under) the camp fire or bury under white hot coals. Be sure to use a stoker or long tongs especially made for tending fires so you don't burn yourself. 

 

Banana set atop the burning embers under the active fire burning above

Wait 5 or 10 minutes. Remove the Banana S'more from the fire.

 

 

Banana totally buried under white hot charcoal

 

Let cool a few minutes. Carefully unwrap the foil. Your Banana S'more should be cooked through, chocolate and marshmallows melted.

Using a spoon - dig in! Scopping, the insides out and eating like a dessert.

ENJOY!

The next time you go camping, I hope you will give this easy, fun & tasty recipe a try.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

On Nihao, Cupcake! Blog this week:

**Project Life: Week 15 tomorrow.

**a new photography challenge coming up on Thursday (and the 25th of every month going forward)! The theme this month is 4 Self Portraits; 4 Ways. Feel like you want some photography inspiration & motivation? Join us! We will have a link where you can add your post too. The challenge is to take 4 self-portraits, 4 different ways, but even one is cause for celebration. So don't be shy! More details to be revealed on Thursday. We hope you'll stop by & join in.

How to Survive a Japanese Wedding While Having a Great Time Part 1

Back in November my middle son and I traveled to Japan to attend the wedding of the daughter of some of our dearest friends. I met this family back in the 90's when I lived in Japan and taught English.

Their daughters were 4 & 6 back then and they hired me to teach three classes in their home for the daughters and about 12 other children in the neighborhood.

After the classes were over, the mother would invite me to stay over for tea. We would chat, both with dictionaries in hand. I was learning Japanese & she was learning English.

We did this every week for two years. We became close friends. The family also invited me and my husband (fiance at the time) over for dinner often and even took us on a wonderful trip of Japanese hot springs and amusement parks before we moved back to California.

When we got married their two daughters were the flower girls in our wedding!

I had always hoped I would get the opportunity to return to Japan someday and attend the wedding of their daughters. For so many reasons.

There is no greater privelege than to share in the tradition, customs & special ceremony of friends from another country and culture, especially in the intimate way that we were able to. 

We were treated like family. I feel like we are family. I will cherish these memories forever. It was one of the highlights of my life!

We arrived in Kyushu (southern most Japanese island) early in the morning after more than 24 hours of travel. We walked from the train station directly to the hotel where everyone was getting dressed. We quickly changed from our travel clothes into our wedding clothes at the traditional hotel.

In the lobby of the hotel we all posed with the bride & her family before heading up the mountain to the Buddhist temple where the ceremony was to be held. Her father was joining her at the temple. 

The groom's father is a Buddhist priest and they were getting married at his temple in a traditional Buddhist ceremony.

Very few Japanese have religious ceremonies now-a-days so this was a rare opportunity even for Japanese people. It is actually considered incredibly old fashioned and boring and they could not believe we actually wanted to travel as far as we did to attend. The family lives on the main island of Honshu in Kyoto, 600 miles away. 

Here is the bride and her younger sister in the van ready to depart for the temple. My son and I rode up with the bride, her mother & her sister in the van. The father of the bride met us at the temple.

Exiting the van at the mountain temple.

Ascending the mountain from the road.

The wedding photographers were at the ready, awaiting her arrival. Her mother escorts her up the last part of the mountain to the temple.

She is wearing traditional wedding Kimono. Her sister and I followed them up the pathway. I was trying to hide so I wouldn't ruin the traditional photos. They wanted us in the photos because we were part of the scene. And there is still some novelty in having someone from so far away attend a wedding.

Entering the temple gates.

Her mother escorts her through the temple grounds into the temple.

We pass the time chatting and enjoying the gorgeous grounds

and location - high in the mountains.

The temple congretation anxiously awaits the arrival of the bride.

The temple congregation was never far away from the excitement. They are so happy for the wedding of their priest's son. They watched him grow up here.

The bride's friends enjoying the beauty of the temple grounds.

Entering the temple to wait before the ceremony begins. The stairs are difficult for her to ascend due to the way the Kimono fits tightly around her legs and of course her special sandals.

In a room off the main temple, we relax with the family. The groom's grandmother stops in to greet the bride and her family.

The bride's father was at the temple awaiting her arrival. We relax with the family having snacks in anticipation of the ceremony to begin in a few minutes. The mother of the bride receives a few last minute touch ups while the aunt of the groom looks on.

The ceremony begins as the two younger sisters of the groom process in with candles in their gorgeous Kimono. They wore my favorite Kimonos of the entire weekend.

Next cousins of the groom enter carrying gorgeous flowers.

The groom enters wearing a traditional wedding Kimono.

And now the bride enters escorted by her attendant who is the aunt of the groom.

This was my view of the ceremony. I sat on the bride's side in the third & last row.

This is the Buddhist prayer book. I was happily reading along (I know how to read Japanese) but could not remember what any of it meant. I used to know, once upon a time!

Exchanging vows.

Then the entire audience shared in a cup of celebratory sake. Even Nicholas got to partake. He felt so adult. He was surprised by how good tasting it was. It was a sweet sake and probably of very high quality so it went down smooth!

Immediately after the ceremony we posed for photos.

We took photos of each other.

Then it was our turn. The family photo...

This is my faux pas photo. Notice my bare feet?? After living in Japan 2.5+ years, and visiting two times since, I know better!

Of course at a temple I would have to remove my shoes! Of course not covering my feet would be impolite and inappropriate. But for some reason, when my little feetie socks could be seen in my flats, instead of sticking them in my purse, I put them back in my suitcase! 

So I arrived at the temple door and had to remove my shoes. I cringed inside. But I knew my dear friends would forgive me. So, I held my head high and did my best to be respectful and enjoy myself at the same time.

Only one person expressed concern that my feet might be cold. I assured him that I was perfectly comfortable.

And then one photo of "the kids."

Back to the side room for more snacks.

A quick nap...

More photos out in front of the temple before the Kyushu reception.

Then we high tailed it back to the train station to catch the Nozomi high speed train straight to Kyoto.

And we caught a few ZZZZZZZZss so we could wake up in the morning and do it all again the very next day with the bride's friends and family Kyoto-style!

Check back soon for How to Survive a Japanese Wedding While Having a Great Time Part 2.

Thanks for stopping by!

2013 Day in the Life: March [Pictures]

My plan this month was to document Friday, a busy ordinary weekday, but about lunchtime I realized I had forgotten to document anything. So I switched to Saturday. As Friday continued on, I sort of wished I had documented that day since it was a "good" weekday with lots of extra things like meetings and sports games and volunteer work during the day. 

I find these things the most difficult to capture on film because I get self-conscious. So, I was looking forward to the challenge & the photos as a result of overcoming my nerves.

Next month!

And I ended up I loving documenting Saturday.

I did get a late start. I didn't realize I was meant to document until I got home from my yoga class at 10:30 AM! So before that, the documentation is in words only. But that is OK because I wanted to focus more on the words this year and this month. So, that works out.

I ended up jotting down a bunch of notes in my notebook. I will be re-typing when I transfer everything into my DITL template in Photoshop. I will get times from my notebook as well as the metadata on my photos. I love including exact times.

Watch in Week 13 for my Day in the Life insert.

To see last month's Day in the Life layout, go here. To see it in my Project Life album, go here.

I'm linking up here at Ali's blog. Check it out, there are others who linked up as well offering great inspiration, as well as a nice article regarding the Day in the Life process.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Week Through My Lens

Weekly stop at Costco. 

Experimenting with special effects for the boys' latest movie.

Being goofy, as always.

Breakfast and cupcakes ready to go to school with big brother.

Pitching practice.

Easter decorations are out. The kids love this thing that sings and dances. I like that they like it but after awhile it drives me crazy!

Breakfast-making Pancake French Toast for the second time. This time on purpose! The first time it was a "Happy Accident!"

A treat for St Patty's Day.

Thanks for stopping by!

2013 Project Life 365: Week 10 & An Invitation

Here we are at Week 10 of Project Life. I am keeping up and I'm so happy! Before we got on to the usual business of my weekly Project Life layout I have a special invitation for you.

An INVITATION to CELEBRATE

In case you hadn't noticed, the year is flying by! We are almost through the first quarter of 2013.

At the completion of Week 13 we will be 25% through the year. I want to keep myself motivated and accountable with Project Life so I want to throw myself a party for keeping up.

On Friday, April 12 (the week I complete my Project Life 13 spread), I will host a Blog Hop to celebrate.

Care to join me? It will be a great time to celebrate, pause for a moment and reflect on what we've accomplished, what we've learned and how the project is going so far.

**Whatever you have complete in your album is totally fine! No need to have the same criteria for goals as I do. You are more than welcome to participate regardless of how you are doing or your progress. The more the merrier!**

If you are interested in joining me or have any questions, please email me (link in my side bar under my photo). Put "2013 Project Life April Blog Hop" in the subject line and includeyour name & blog address in the message. I will compile a list of participants and email everyone in a week or so with more details.   

If you have no idea what a blog hop is or which kind of blog hop I am talking about (I've seen a few different types of virtual events out there called "blog hops"), click this link or this link to see past blog hops I've hosted on my blog.

I hope you'll join me. It should be a lot of fun and who knows you may win a little prize!

This week I wanted to use a lot of my own stamps again. I only used a couple pre-printed journaling cards from my Project Life kits. 

I primarily used 4x3 Grid Cards and decorated them with the stamps I designed myself or washi tape. (That link goes to 4x6 grid cards. I couldn't find any at amazon.com so perhaps they are sold out. I'm sure they will be back in stock as soon as possible if that is the case.)

On this page I wrote directly on a 4x3 photo & a 4x6 photos and used lots of letter stickers as usual.

I have two inserts this week. Sorry there is not a front view of my first insert. But you can look at my full spread photo to see it. It is the top two rows on the right side. 

That stamp with a star in the center is one of my latest stamp designs. [Here is the post where I explain how I make them.]

To make this insert, I took leftovers from an insert I used a previous week and used several layers of washi tape to make strips to add three holes so I could add it into the 3-ring album.

This is the back side of the first insert. I made my own filler card making a pattern out of one of the stamps I made. The RIGHT NOW journaling card uses my own chevron stamp and two colors of ink. The bottom of the EPIC FREAK card is washi tape I got on sale at Michaels this week.

Here is the altered insert with washi tape a little closer up.

To see all of my Project Life layouts of the past few years, go here.

I'm linking up at The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.

Check it out for lots of PL inspiration! Don't know what Project Life is? Go to Becky's blog for more information.

 

PINTEREST

Do you have a Project Life board on PINTEREST? If so, leave me a link to your board in the comments and I'll follow you. I love finding more friends to share inspriation. If you'd like to check out my Project Life board, go here. And here's a link to my PROJECT LIFE FREEBIES board as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

2013 Project Life 365: Week 8 - Balance

Project Life Week 9 is (almost) done! Hurray! I had a lot of fun this week.

Another week with inserts. This time I had four inserts and I have one more to add (I'll show you next time). Last week I mentioned that every week in Project Life I feel like there are many things that I want to add but I don't manage to. I typically run out of time.

Well, this week, I  stepped it up a bit and added a ton of stuff.

It did take me a lot longer than last week. But that is OK. Some weeks are simple and short. Other weeks are more involved and take a long time. As we Project Lifers know, this project allows that kind of flexibility. It can change from week to week or day to day, right?

I participated in Ali Edwards' Day in the Life project this month. (I wrote about it in this post.) Even though, I wasn't pleased with how many pics I took or the amount of detail I recorded, I'm glad I completed the project.

For me doing that acts as a type of warm-up. I think the annoyance at myself in not doing it in a way that excites me will motivate me to do it right the next time. So, if all works out, I will do it again next month.

Have you done a Day in the Life project this year or do you plan to?

Here is the other side of my Day in the Life insert. My printer was running out of ink so I printed it in black & white but it still ran out - thus it looks as if the toaster oven is on fire and so is my son's breakfast! I just got more ink today and will be reprinting!!

The other insert is journaling from my Oh Life entries. (Oh Life is a free service that sends you an email each day, you respond with your daily entry. It is easy to download your records any time you want!) I printed them up on a 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock, folded it in half and put it in an 8.5x11 page protector that I stitched up using my sewing machine. I trimmed off the extra and will use it for a future insert.

This is the other side of the Oh Life insert. I made the Heart House stamp on the bottom. To see the other stamps I designed, go here and to see how I made them (so easy!), go here. Check out my other Project Life layouts this year if you are interested to see how I've used them each week. I think they've made it in all but one layout in 2013.

Here is yet another birthday insert. This is the third birthday celebration in my album so far this year and it is only early March! I've started a sort of theme - all include a 3x4 "Happy Birthday" card with my banner stamp & my cupcake stamp and the last two birthdays include a decorative label sticker with the birthday person's age and a heart.

I'm liking that consistencey and sub-theme throughout my album.

The other side of the birthday insert includes photos from an event at my son's elementary school.

And then the next insert is from an after school event for my other sons' middle school.

And here is the other side tha includes a ticket and photo of the son that was on the team.

And finally the right side of the layout. Here I am using the baseball stitching stamp again. Yet another sub-theme (baseball) I am finding myself using throught my album (twice so far).

Another one that I used the past two weeks was a movie camera stamp I use any time I have photos of my kids filming movies as they love to do. You'll see that one again in Week 10!

Here is a close-up of my 3x4 Birthday card with banner stamp.

A close up of the Heart House stamps.

And finally a close-up of the birthday age label.

BALANCE

The lesson for me this week, was to remember that life & Project Life is all about balance. Some weeks (sometimes many weeks), my layouts will be simple and quick and I won't have the time to put everything I want into the spread.

What is important for me to remember is that all is not lost! There will come a time when I can get a lot of stuff in my layout! And I can go back and add an insert in past weeks (I did that this week - adding in an insert full of my sons' second grade Valentine's). Who said it all has to be done NOW?!

INSPIRATION & A FREEBIE

That's all for this week, but before I sign off, I wanted to tell you about an adorable free download at Amanda Rose's blog. It's a really cute Week in Review journaling card. And while you are there, check out her Day in the Life for February - I love how she executed it. I hope to channel her dedication, energy & creativity for DAY IN THE LIFE at the end of this month! 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great week.

 

To see all of my Project Life layouts of the past few years, go here.

I'm linking up at The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.

Check it out for lots of PL inspiration! Don't know what Project Life is? Go to Becky's blog for more information.

 

And this past Saturday, March 9, my Project Life Week 8 layout was featured here. Please stop by to check it out! Thanks! 

PINTEREST

Do you have a Project Life board on PINTEREST? If so, leave me a link to your board in the comments and I'll follow you. I love finding more friends to share inspriation. If you'd like to check out my Project Life board, go here. And here's a link to my PROJECT LIFE FREEBIES board as well

 

Follow me on 

52 Lists // Week 9: THIS WEEK I WILL GO & #Me Now [March 2013]

I really enjoyed filling out Week 5 about 7 weeks ago or so. I checked back in at Mooreaseal recently and loved the list for this week, Week 9. So I'm participating again.

I'm linking up at Moorea Seal. Check it out, there are a lot of great lists with another one every Tuesday! I've downloaded several more and I will post those when I have them complete.

Fun stuff!

And since last time I posted a list, I also answered these questions, why not do it again:

listening: still enjoying silence at the gym & NPR on the radio and the occasional stop on a music station

reading: A Simple Act of Gratitude & Silver Lining Playbook

watching: Modern Family, The John Stewart Show, The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, Oprah's Master Class, The Americans

eating: Shepherds Pie (using ground turkey), tacos, rotisserie chicken, Healthy Choice chocolat bars, quinoa

drinking: water (but not enough), coffee (half-caf) my caffeine consumption has climbed toooo high, green smoothies

wearing: My dark jeans, my favorite black and brown casual boots, my pink sweater, 

feeling: creative & inspired, frustrated, ready, hopeful

weather: clear and warm, with a few days of cold

wanting: to find out already and make progress!

needing: better meals and meal planning & more time to cook!

thinking: I need to refocus my energy on gratitude and at the same time thinking I am lucky to have such a great family

enjoying: my kids and being more involved in their lives now that we are back in the States and it is normal for parents to volunteer at school and be around their kids (i.e., waiting/observing during lessons & practices & games, etc)

 

Goals & Intentions 2013 // March Update

In my last GOALS & INTENTIONS post here, I had planned to do the following:  

GOALS for February

*Include GRATEFUL label in Project Life Album - I used some form of GRATEFUL in most of my weeks. I think there were two weeks that didn't include something and only one where GRATEFUL was not a label on a photo [GRATEFUL is my ONE LITTLE WORD for 2013]

*Create LOGO for 24 Projects in 2013 - DONE!! Go to this post to see what it looks like.

*Yoga x 2 every week - I have done this every week where scheduling is possible. Some weeks only one time and one week I wasn't able to go. I am keeping track on a calendar print out. I have codes for all types of exercises that I do, for example, circle for Yoga, square for outdoor exercise (hike or brisk walk), 'x' for cardio & weights at the gym. This allows me to record when I do more than one type of exercise in a day. It makes a huge difference to keep track. It makes me feel good to see all the times I have exercised. I look for any excuse to get positive feedback and good feelings.

*Set up documentation system for Recipes - I had this done during the last update but I haven't done much to keep up with it and I have lost my enthusiasm for trying new recipes. In my original goals, I was going to keep this going until I didn't feel like it. I still plan to try new recipes and record my reaction. I also plan to print out the recipes and add them to my folder. 

I also promised to share a grid of all of the new recipes I have tried so far. Oops! I haven't done this. Watch for my food grid this month!

*Complete Project Life every week, post on Sunday at the latest Monday night. I have done this every week! I am up to Week 8. I have posted twice (I think?) on Sunday but usually I post my layouts on Monday which is my end all deadline. I am hoping to do something when I complete an entire quarter which would be Week 13. I'm open to any ideas. I'm thinking a blog hop with other bloggers who are also doing Project Life as a weekly project.

To see all of my posts about PROJECT LIFE, click HERE.

*Try a green smoothie 2+ mornings this week I'm still doing this several times a week. Some weeks more often than others. We've refined our recipe so it is really good. Go here for the recipe.

*Take one photo with the LOVE of MY LIFE - Still doing this but I don't think I am getting any better about remembering every week. I need to go through my photo archives and see how many we have taken. I should also publish a grid of these before April!

YEARLY GOALS (NOTE: The numbers correspond to the order they were in when I first published them. 

1) Complete two projects a month in 2013. These can be any type of DIY project. [some ideas: make my own stamps - DONE, art journal, make my own stencils, make another felt monster in partnership with my 7 year-old designer, Braden, sew something - DONE, I'd like to do one photo book (I think about these a lot and never complete), t-shirt - DONE, some Xmas DIY project, Japan travel journal, mini book, etc.] I have four+ projects complete but I have only shared one. Three will be shared before April!!

2) Share more about my process and my creations on my blog. - so far, so good. Need to do more of this but I feel like I am so busy creating things that there isn't time to blog about it. Not to mention taking pics of the process, editing those pics and getting them ready to upload, takes up lots of time too. Again I am working on blog posts. I hope to share these along with my 24 in 12 Blog Posts. Hope to see 3 of these before April.

3) 30 Days of Cupcakes - this is something my husband has been bugging me to do. Actually, he wants me to do 365 days of cupcakes, but I have totally refused that one. I'm still not ready to commit to 30 days of cupcakes. I will do 12+ days coming up soon if all stars align. Stay tuned! The stars did not align sadly! I find it really hard to make something just for a blog post and no other occasion. I was going to gift my 12 cupcakes to one of the kids' teachers but at the time it would have been appropriate, I was too busy. Therefore, I am tabling this one. The 12 I want to make are designed and I can't wait to make them, but it has to be the right occasion.

To see more of my CUPCAKES click here or visit MY CUPCAKE SET on Flickr.

4) Exercise outdoors 1+ times a week - I'm still doing this and recording each occasion with photos of my feet and the feet of any of my exercise companions. Just about every Sunday I go on a hike or brisk walk with one of my kids, sometimes more than one. It's made for some fun together time. And I love changing up my exercise routine. 

5) "Compete" in one or more FUN RUNs in my community. Hopefully, the next one that comes up. There was one I wanted to do last month and I am still regretting not going for it. I let laziness & (Southern Cal) cold weather get in my way. I just heard about a color run coming up next month that we'll do if the schedule allows. You wear white and people along the way throw colored chalk (or something similar) on the runners and by the end each person is very colorful. It reminds me of the Indian Festival in Varanassi. It will make for some awesome photos! The Color Run I wanted to do turned out to cost $50 per person! That is too high for me. And it isn't even a fundraiser! The way to go with those apparently, is to buy a Groupon but we missed out on the purchase period. So I am keeping my eyes peeled. I'm hoping we don't have to wait until summer for the next one in our city.

8) One Family Photo Each Month - I'm so glad I've kept this up for the past almost two years. I'm not sure I'll continue on with the FAMILY x 12 blog hop, though it is an easy one to organize. We are continuing our blog hop though the group is a little smaller. In fact on March 10 with celebrate 2 years of our monthly blog hop! And it has been a fantastic reminder to myself to get photos with us altogether. Before this hop started, my family took trips to both Singapore and Japan and never took a family photo together - SHAMEFUL! If you have an interest in joining us for this blog hop on the 10th of every month, please send me an email.

9) More photos of Me & The Love of My Life - see my comments above.

Well, there you go! My February Goals & Intentions update! Oh and I should mention that my guiding words - THRIVE! EXPERIMENT! BE GRATEFUL! have been directing me. It has made a huge difference. I haven't been this productive and disciplined in quite some time. And the next step is to share the fruits of my labor with you all here.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long winded post. If you've made it this far, let me know how you are doing so far with your goals & intentions in 2013.

MARCH GOALS

In addition to my goals above:

1) Blog (the design goals will count for my 24 in 12 Projects provided I complete them before the end of the month)

Fix some graphic problems with my blog

Make following me on several social media platforms much easier

Make it possible & more obvious to subscribe to my blog (in the meantime, following me on Twitter is the best way to find out when I publish new posts.)

Post 3 more 24 projects in 12. Make 2 more projects in March - photo book? Blog Improvements? Must decide soon! 

2) This month is all about catching up - mainly sharing on my blog everything I have been up to.

3) One Sketch A Day for 100 Days. I started this a couple of weeks ago and will share my drawings soon as well as where I got the inspiration. I would love to share my link now but I need to get to bed and get this post published!

 

Here is a link I found to a rotating weekly GOALS worksheet. I think youmight like it.

ONE LITTLE WORD Update

My One Little Word for 2013 is GRATEFUL. Besides identifying things weekly in my Project Life album that I am grateful for (including some kind of "GRATEFUL" label) I am currently reading A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life by John Kralik. It's about a man who invites gratitude into his life by writing 365 thank you notes in one year. It started off a little slow, but I am really liking it so far. More for the message than the stellar writing, but overall it is enjoyable and it is keeping me engaged. I'm a little over half way through. I'll post a review when I finish the book. I've found it a great way to keep GRATITUDE present in my life and my conscious.

Thanks stopping by! And keeping in alignment with the theme of gratitude. I'm flattered and grateful that you have decided to spend time in your precious day stopping by my blog and spending a little time here. Have a wonderful day! And if you have an extra moment, let me know you were here. How are things going with your goals for 2013?

2013 Project Life 365: Week 8

WELCOME! 

* A special THANK YOU to everyone who stops by and leaves comments. It truly brightens my day. I also really enjoy popping over to your blog and getting inspired by your Project Life creations. It is a neat sense of Project Life-blog community. It is fun getting to know each of you as the weeks pass through your PL albums and your blogs.

Week 8 of Project Life complete! It feels so good to be keeping up and have another week wrapped up.

I'll admit that I was a little worried this week. I didn't even start until Sunday late afternoon & I was not feeling inspired at all, but once I got started, the creativity came & I got it all finished. Every week, and this week is no exception, there are photos and memorabilia that I hope to include and don't get to, but I made the decision this week that it is OK! 

Done is better than perfect after all. And I can always go back and slide things in the pockets (as I often do). The big delay this week was my missing box of 8.5x11 page protectors! As soon as it is located, a lot more memorabilia will be added in full size and altered sizes. But for now, week 8 is complete!

There isn't anything too special this week. I used a 4x3 inch card as the date card and used an extra photo from Monday. It is a little hard to see in this photo, but I added monogram "R" in the center of the design on that first 3x4 card from the Amber Edition.

The movie camera is the same stamp I made that I used in my Project Life last week.

On this page is another stamp I recently made - the baseball stitching. And the list of nominees for the Academy Awards that we watched on Sunday night with a little party.

How are you staying inspired week after week with your Project Life album? Any tricks or tips you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments.

 

I'm linking up at The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.

To see all of my Project Life layouts of the past few years, go here.

Check it out for lots of PL inspiration! Don't know what Project Life is? Go to Becky's blog for more information.

 

And this Saturday, March 9, my PRoject Life layout will be featured here. Please stop by to check it out! Thanks! 

Do you have a Project Life board on PINTEREST? If so, leave me a link to your board in the comments and I'll follow you. I love finding more friends to share inspriation. If you'd like to check out my Project Life board, go here. And here's a link to my PROJECT LIFE FREEBIES board as well

 

Exercise in January - Goals & Intentions 2013

 

Early in January of this year I wrote a couple of posts (here & here) about my GOALS & INTENTIONS for the year. One of those was to run a mile every day for a month and take a photo of my feet to document my run. After thinking about it awhile and considering my schedule, I realized that wouldn't be a realistic goal for me, so I reconsidered what would work. what I liked about the challenge was:

1) documenting the run by taking a photo of my feet (check out this post when I used this strategy to document my family's day and this post that shows the resulting layout)

2) exercising outdoors [I lived in Beijing, China from 2008 to 2012 where I lived in the center of a huge city that was not only lacking in beauty but was shrouded in heavy pollution so I now LOVE the idea of taking advantage of spending time outdoors in a beautiful area with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and great views.]

So I changed my GOAL. I decided to exercise outdoors two or more times per week and to take a picture of my feet at my destination (I am liberal with this last part and take a photo with the most interesting ground I can find or ground that defines where I ended up.)

My husband and I workout once or twice a week on the Strand at the beach. I run almost weekly with the running club at my kids' middle school and every Sunday (if I am in town or don't have a special event) I go on a local hike. As you can see I've had a lot of company.

How are you documenting your exercise goals?

Thanks for stopping by! 

My Green Smoothie Recipe

 

Excuse the sloppy, messy photo. The day I planned to take this pic, we had a little "smoothie mishap" and I was in a rush (of course), so rather than clean it up and reset everything, I decided to take the pic "as is" and "keep it real." I am far from a perfectionist in many aspects of my life - as much as I'd like to be (sometimes). 

In my Goals & Intentions post early last month, I said that I wanted to give green smoothies a try for at least several days in a row. It took me until about week 3 of January to finally remember to look up a few recipes, buy ingredients and then finally make a batch in the mornings before I left for the day. I'm so glad I did!

After a little experimentation, I came up with a recipe that I really like.

 

MARGIE'S GREEN SMOOTHIE RECIPE (EDITED on 3/6/2013)

1/2 of medium to large cucumber peeled & sliced into 1-2 inch pieces

3 cups loosely packed kale leaves (I like to use Trader Joe's ready to use bag) - spinach would work as well

1 small apple peeled, cored & sliced into 1 inch pieces

1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch pieces

1/2 cup of blueberries

1 cup water

1 medium banana

juice of 1/2 or 1 fresh lemon (you could add lemon zest as well)

NOTE: Currently I am borrowing a blender and a food processor neither which are high powered, so I will give instructions as I make my GREEN SMOOTHIE each morning.

In food processor add cucumber, kale, apple, carrot, blueberries & water, Pulse until it reaches a grainy texture. I pulse until my bits won't get any smaller. My food processor (on loan) has its limits!

Transfer cucumber mixture into blender with banana & juice of one lemon (juice of 1/2 lemon works fine too), blend until smooth.

 

 

There is nothing like starting off your morning with a tall glass of water and one of these green smoothies. My husband and I have really grown to look forward to them every morning. Since I first made them mid to late January, we have only missed a few days when we've ran out of a key ingredient. They are much more palatable than we thought they would be and go down very easily.

We have been making smoothies for breakfast for years. As our awarness of different nutrition facts have grown, our smoothie recipes have evolved. Before trying green smoothies, we were making mixed berry, banana (optional), non-fat Greek yogurt smoothies (no sugar or juice).

How about you? Do you have a favorite GREEN SMOOTHIE recipe to share? I'd love to hear about it and what you like about it.

Now, I'm off to make my morning smoothie!

Goals & Intentions 2013 // February Update

The last time I posted about my goals & intentions, I was doing weekly goals in order to accomplish my goals for the year. As I suspected, it takes too much time to update my goals weekly so I have decided to switch to a monthly update which I intend to publish the first week of every month throughout this year.

This post is heavy on words, light on photos. Much of the text (in black) is copied & pasted from two of my other GOALS & INTENTIONS posts to give a bit of background. Some of it has been edited out for brevity sake. If you'd like to see everything that I wrote, visit the original posts here and here.

In my last GOALS & INTENTIONS post here, I had planned to do the following:  

GOALS for Jan 14-20

*Make GRATEFUL label for Project Life Album - had thought I would design the label in Photoshop and print out on Avery inkjet adhesive paper, but some of my Photoshop skills escaped me so I opted for stamping on these Marthat Stewart for Avery 

*Create LOGO for 24 Projects in 2013 - working on that this week, I'm making good progress - YAY!

*Yoga x 2 - every week except last week due to birthday party planning, religious milestone and a bad cold; Cardio 5x - Yes; Run 1 mile - take feet pic - I have switched this to exercising outside twice a week & I do take feet pics each time. Only once did I forget the camera.

*Set up documentation system for Recipes - YES! I'll be sharing more of these soon. Here is my post introducing my system. & Running - same as above, I've switched to outdoor exercise including once a week hike - all outdoor exercise has food photo to document. I will post a monthly grid of feet photos as my documentation - coming soon.

*Complete Project Life Week 2, post on Sunday - I've done this every week so far. The past two weeks (3 & 4) I have posted on Monday night, my true deadline, but I do strive for Sunday.

*Make 10 Stamps (I am the most excited about this one!) - DONE! I ended up making at least 15 and have many ideas written down for more. To see all the ones I've made, go here. To see my HOW-TO post, go here.

*Try a green smoothie 2+ mornings this week - DONE! I'm not sure if I started this the week of Jan 14, but I did the following week and now I have one almost every day. I'll share my current recipe here soon.

*Make one new recipe this week - YES! So far, I haven't missed a week. Last week, my husband was the chef of the new recipe, though I think I made something too. I've taken photos of every new dish and will not only put them in my mini-book but will publish a monthly grid here. I better get on that! So much to share!

*Take one photo with the LOVE of MY LIFE - I have been doing this. I do think I missed at least one week. Problem is, I am not liking the photos. We have been taking them all of ourselves - we're need a little variety. And I just realized we were all dressed up the other day and missed that perfect opportunity. I'll do better in February. Let me know if you have any creative ideas for self-portraits with more than one person in them. Perhaps I should refer to my own SELF TIME MADNESS PHOTOS.

YEARLY GOALS

1) Complete two projects a month in 2013. These can be any type of DIY project. [some ideas: make my own stamps - DONE, art journal, make my own stencils, make another felt monster in partnership with my 7 year-old designer, Braden, sew something - DONE, I'd like to do one photo book (I think about these a lot and never complete), t-shirt - DONE, some Xmas DIY project, Japan travel journal, mini book, etc.]

2) Share more about my process and my creations on my blog. - so far, so good. Need to do more of thise but I feel like I am so busy creating things that there isn't time to blog about it. Not to mention taking pics of the process, editing those pics and getting them ready to upload, takes up lots of time too.

3) 30 Days of Cupcakes - this is something my husband has been bugging me to do. Actually, he wants me to do 365 days of cupcakes, but I have totally refused that one. I'm still not ready to commit to 30 days of cupcakes. I will do 12+ days coming up soon if all stars align. Stay tuned!

To see more of my CUPCAKES click here or visit MY SET on Flickr.

4) Run 1 Mile Everyday for 30 Days - I'm not sure how this one will work. I may have to make it 3 times a week for four weeks or something like that as running may not fit my schedule. I typically exercise at the gym and so even though I won't be running, I will still be exercising. I have to ruminate on this awhile and see what I will be happy with. But one thing I do want to do is take a photo of my feet (wearing my extremely cool new workout shoes) at every place I run (I saw this on Elise Blaha's blog and thought is was awesome)! As I mentioned above, this has changed to exercise outside 2+x/week. And document this by taking a feet photo. So far, almost all of these photos contain more than one pair of feet, so I've had a lot of company. I plan to share a grid of all my feet photos each month. So, January's will be coming soon!

5) "Compete" in one or more FUN RUNs in my community. Hopefully, the next one that comes up. There was one I wanted to do last month and I am still regretting not going for it. I let laziness & (Southern Cal) cold weather get in my way. I just heard about a color run coming up next month that we'll do if the schedule allows. You wear white and people along the way throw colored chalk (or something similar) on the runners and by the end each person is very colorful. It reminds me of the Indian Festival in Varanassi. It will make for some awesome photos!

photo credit: johnbrew (click on his name to see his flickr photostream) 

photo credit: johnbrew (click on his name to see his flickr photostream) 

 

6) Project Life - 52 weeks - Blog About It weekly - this may mean just one quick photo of my two page spread because I often think showing all the details, taking the photos and uploading is very tedious and since this is mainly just for me and at this point I don't have a ton of regular readers (or NO regular readers-let's be honest!), who would I be doing it for anyway, right? The minimum of one photo will be a way to keep myself accountable and track my progress. I've been doing far more than one quick photo of my two page spread! What happens to me? I just can't stop myself. It is just so much fun, but I do reserve the right to go back to one simple photo if needed.

To see all of my posts about PROJECT LIFE, click HERE.

7) Try One New Recipe a Week - I have a love/hate recipe with cooking and sometimes baking. I hate being responsible to cook dinner for my family every night. Luckily my husband likes to cook and lately he's been able to help me carry this burden. I hate thinking of new meals Every. Single. Day. that my whole family will eat and like (doesn't happen often) and that I think are healthy enough for them to put inside their bodies. YES! Though many of the new recipes have just been ones for the adults in our home to eat. But that's OK. It has been fun.

8) One Family Photo Each Month - I'm so glad I've kept this up for the past almost two years. I'm not sure I'll continue on with the FAMILY x 12 blog hop, though it is an easy one to organize. Seems a shame not to. So far so good, though our one photo is missing Reece because he was away for the weekend. That will be rectified this month. Our February blog hop is almost here - this Sunday, Feb 10 (which is also Chinese New Year aka: Spring Festival)

9) More photos of Me & The Love of My Life - see my comments above.

Well, there you go! My February Goals & Intentions update! Oh and I should mention that my guiding words - THRIVE! EXPERIMENT! BE GRATEFUL! have been directing me. It has made a huge difference. I haven't been this productive and disciplined in quite some time. And the next step is to share the fruits of my labor with you all here.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long winded post. If you've made it this far, let me know how you are doing so far with your goals & intentions in 2013.

 

 

#ME: Now [February 2013] & 52 Lists 2013 Project

The 52 Lists Project article has moved to my new site, Nihao, Cupcake! Click here to be redirected to this article on my new site.

 

2013 #Project365 A Week in Photos

I'm linking this beach photo at Simple Things for Simple Things Sunday. I love that we are close enough to the beach that it can be our destination for a quick weekday run. It doesn't get better than that.

                           

 

I'm entering this amusing photo of Nicholas over at Weekly Top Shot, a new photo linky I found this week. It cracks me up but it is soooo him. Reece & he were filming a gift for Braden. Nicholas' character speaks in a British accent and tells the audience a story as he sits in his La-Z-Boy by his hearth sipping apple juice out of a crystal goblet with a book in his lap.

I'm linking this photo up at Nihao, Y'all. 

 

My 365 Photos from last week. You may notice there is more than one per day. But once I get going, I never take just one! So far, I haven't missed a day. Loving it.

Since were are on the subject of photos, I know many use Instagram. Here is a great article about using it safely, click here.

Three Years Ago Today... Life in Beijing

Grabbing lunch with Mom & Dad at a Vietnamese restaurant in The Place (it closed this past summer 2012 just before we moved home).

Paul has a Vietnamese coffee to finish off his lunch.

A scrapbook page I made this day - probably the reason I forgot to frost my cupcakes - see below.

Grabbing a bite at the new outlet mall down the street from the school before their performance.

I totally forgot to frost my cupcakes this day - brain lapse! So at the last minute I had to grab all of my supplies, throw them and my 5 year old in the taxi and frost them in the school's industrial kitchen. Thank goodness we had to be there more than an hour early.

My lair of tiger cupcakes for the bake sale. They are red because it was the year of the tiger and red is the color of celebration and the program was in celebration of Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival.

Children in the cafeteria waiting for their turn to be on stage.





I remember loving this performance. This was back when I loved the school and thought it was a wonderful way to introduce my kids to the Chinese culture. One year later, my feelings had changed 180 degrees!

What a difference THREE years can make!

Check back later today for my PROJECT LIFE: Week 3 post.

Take 12 Challenge :: NOVEMBER

Here it is! My November TAKE 12 layout. I went with a digi layout this month. Since it was Veteran's Day, a holiday from school, we spent the day at Universal Studios. I really wanted to use a map of the park as part of my layout since my kids really love all maps of amusement parks! I also think it is a great capture of the times for years down the road. Especially, now since amusement parks change so much and so quickly. The rides I loved at Universal when I was a kid aren't even there any more. No more E.T., The Extraterrestrial! No more Back to the Future! A map from back then would be so cool to see now, don't you think??

I found a PDF file of the map online (using google), so it made sense to continue with the layout using Photoshop & go digi. I added my twelve photos, some journaling in text boxes and a title using letters from cs schneider. I had an important story to tell so this simple layout gave me plenty of space for all that I wanted to add - journaling, photos & map!

The journaling reads:

EARLY in September Ayane & Kotono came to visit us from Kyoto, Japan for a week. We took them to Universal Studios. 

They had a great promotion for Southern California residents - buy an annual pass for the price of a one-day ticket. 

How could we pass this up? 

Veteran’s Day was coming so the kids would have a Monday with no school. It would be the perfect day to use our 

annual pass. The problem was the kids had a hard time behaving the entire weekend. They were given chance 

after chance to improve their behavior until it became clear, there was no way we could justify a trip to 

Universal Studios. Nicholas was devastated.

Sunday night he left an apology letter on my pillow. In the morning when we told him there was no way we could 

justify going, he was in tears. 

Then I remembered his report card! I realized he had accomplished his goal of making the HONOR ROLL! It was a 

huge accomplishment for him and we hadn’t yet thought of a reward and celebration. A mom/son day at 

Universal Studios would be perfect. And honestly the other two boys had decided they really didn’t want to go after all, 

so it was perfect.

Nicholas & I ate a good breakfast and headed off to Universal.

NICHOLAS was very disappointed when we saw that Jurassic Park, The Ride was closed for renovations! That is his 

favorite ride. The best part of the day was The Mummy Ride. Why? Because that is his second favorite ride, of course! 

I, on the other hand, am not a big fan of The Mummy Ride because it moves so fast, it gives me motion sickness! 

I think it is one of the unfortunate effects of aging. Next time I’ll have to remember to take Dramamine. 

I hate being an old fuddy duddy! To survive that ride I have to keep my eyes shut.

Nicholas and I came up with a great idea to avoid long lines, we joined the “single rider” line so we could go 
straight to the front. The sacrafice was not riding together and waiting for each other at the other end, 
but since we always got to go right away, waiting at the end was never an issue.

We spent so much time running around going on rides, we never had time to eat, as usual! 
We managed to time our day so we could see the Terminator 3-D show which we had missed the last two 
times at Universal. Nicholas was very impressed and told his brothers they HAD to see it next time.

On the way out, we made a quick stop at Yogurtland. YUM!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit the Ella Publishing Blog to link up your own Take 12 Layout for November and possibly win this month's great prize. Hurry it will close in only a few hours from the time this post was published!

Please visit the rest of the Design Team members to see their amazing layouts:

• Like the Car
  Scrapworthy Lives
  Janette Carter-Kincaid
  Scrap Inspired
  Scrappy Wife, Happy Life
  Right Here-Right Now
  Scrapworthy Lives
  People of the Scrapbook
  My Little Blessings
  Life is Sweet
  A Swoop and a Dart
  Endless Possibilities
  Yeah, Write

October 5 FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Sept 10th (usually on the 5th of the month) FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop when we all share a photo of our families each month.

We are a small group of bloggers who share the same goal - to get more photos of our families (all together) throughout the year. So, we all join forces on the fifth of every month (except this month) and share our one (or more) family photo for the month!

My two photos this month are from early in September when our dear friends from Japan were visiting. These two "girls" now young women, were the flower girls in our wedding 15 years ago! Here we are at the County Fair.

 

This is the first time they have come to visit without their parents. We had a great time doing all the touristy things. And here we are at one of the kids' favorite froyo places- Yogurtland. Nothing beats serving yourself! 

It's a small group for the blog hop this month. But that's OK! Next on the blog hop is RUTH! 

Oh! Before you go, I should let you know that for the next 30 days, I will be posting daily. I know amazing, huh, after so little posting from me over the past six months or so! I meant to start on October 1, but it came and went without a dedicated blog post, so I started yesterday. Better late than never! My theme will be FAVORITE PHOTOS from my ARCHIVES. Some will be from several years ago and others will be more recent. I'm totally indulging myself, but please stop by if you'd like to see!

Now, off you go for more FAMILY PHOTO inspiration!

OCTOBER 5 Family x 12 Blog Hop Participant List

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog

Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com

Jo http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com

 

Snips & Snails & Puppydog Tails... My 31 Days of Blog Posts Begins Today!

 

Last October I posted everyday or close to every day. I had joined in a 31 day challenge with a group of over 700 other bloggers. I had hoped to do the same again. Not joining a blog challenge, but simply posting every day in the month of October. My idea was to post one photo every day. Very simple. But then October 1st came and went and I never did the pre-work. I could let that stop me, but I am not going to, so my 31 Days of Blogging starts today, Thurs, Oct 4!!!

I have gone through my photo archives and identified more than 31 one of my all time favorites. I will share one a day here with you!

This first one is my two oldest boys posing at the top of a volcano in Lassen National Park. My oldest was only 3 at the time and hiked the entire way by himself with no stopping! And no food! (Until reaching the pinnacle.) I think it was something like a 3500 foot incline. We were major hikers back then. What endurance he had!! My younger son had been up most of the night before with a bad cold. We were camping and decided to head home a day early and wanted to squeeze in one hike before we left. It was an amazing view so it was definitely worth the effort even though the rest of the trip was plagued by Murphy's Law!

Thanks for stopping by and come back tomorrow for my monthly FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop when a group of us all post our family photo(s) for the previous month. If you have a family photo to post, stop by and link to your blog post in the comments! Or email me and join us next month.

Dear Photograph,

Dear Photograph,

It is hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since we visited Tian'anmen Square for the very first time in 1997. It is the one place in Beijing that is still recognizeable to me. The rest of the city is still changing at a break neck pace. I was hard pressed to find anything different between the two photographs.

The walls appear to be a different color red but is that only the angle of light? The old photo has red flags on the flag poles, but other than that the only difference I could find was the white street lamps in the older photo just under the sign on the left side. Even the color of the sky is the same! This is pretty unusual these days since the pollution has gotten so bad in the past four years. Beijing is a much different city when the skies are blue!

The Forbidden City is a much different place now than it was then. There are so many more tourists these days. I remember back then most of the visitors were dressed in drab colored Mao suits comlete with matching hats. So many babies and toddlers were balanced on the marble bridges below Mao's portrait for a photo of their own with Tian'anmen gate and Mao's portrait proudly showing in the background - proof of their pilgramage from the village to the capital city. Oh, how I wish I had captured a photo of that scene! How times changes and in such a short time. Now thousands of domestic tourists pour over the marble bridges each day and the crowds are kept moving. No chance to balance a baby and pose for what used to be an obligatory photograph and keepsake of a citizen's journey to their beloved captial.

 

I was finally motivated to get this photo taken by the DEAR PHOTOGRAPH Challenge at Ella Publishing's blog. If you hurry, you can link up too, it ends today, May 31st.

Come back tomorrow, Friday, June 1st for the ONE LITTLE WORD monthly blog hop AND for a fantastic give away compliments of Ella Publishing. I will be giving away Ella Publishing's PHOTOGRAPHY BUNDLE (if sold separately it's over a $21 value!)

THE CREATURE (a pretty darn funny film by my 11 year old with help from nobody over 7 years old)...

Ella Publishing May Take 12 Challenge :: Stepping Back in Time [China-Style]

It is time for yet another Ella Publishing Take 12 Challenge!!

CONFESSION: My twelve photos are not actually from May 12th. Shhhhhhhhh! I had a very special day on May 11th. I had a very special day on May 13th (Mother's Day). On May 12th... not so much.

Don't get me wrong. We had a fun day, but it was not a day that was conducive to good photos. Nor was I in the mood to force myself to take photos, as much as I tried.

I call myself "The Moody Photographer." And when the mood isn't there, I don't take photos.

So, I decided to do my layout with the TWELVE photos that did inspire me. On the 11th I went on a special tour with a group of other moms who live in Beijing. We went to a village just outside of the city. It is the one place in the world that makes the special glazed tiles (many 3 dimensional) that adorn the buildings at The Forbidden City, the city gates (including Tian'anmen Square), the temple buildings in the parks, etc.

It is a workshop where they mine shale in the local mountains. They turn that to clay and packing molds by hand, they create these amazing decorative tiles.

After which, they dip them in glaze (made from cobalt, copper & iron) and fire them in old fashioned kilns. 

 

I love these mock old Chinese coin brads I got from Michaels. They come with two other Chinese-esque brads that are equally as cool/beautiful.  

One reason this trip was so meaningful to me was that I have taken ceramics classes at various times in my life; for two years while in Japan, one summer in college when the visiting professor told me I should be an artist and in California with my kids at our local community center. [How cool that they had Mommy & me ceramics classes,no?!]

I chose this paper from the Far East (Die Cuts With a View) paper pack because the crackling reminded me of the dried mud turning into clay in huge troughs at the front of the workshop. 

 

I wanted the attention on my photos so I chose a sketch (Template 1 in the Template packet) from the Ella Publishing Take 12 Guided Inspiration Kit. And I LOVE how it turned out. The photos are definitely the stars of this layout. They tell the stoy.

There is more journaling I would like to add, so I might add a 6x12 insert and if there is space, I might add a few smaller accent photos along with my journaling.

I just loved this day. 

I loved interacting with the artisans, being able to be right in the heart of their workshop - literally stepping over the wet clay shapes waiting to go into the drying room (essentially a giant oven).

This is the drying room. Notice how the pieces are different shades of grey? The darker pieces are the wet ones and the lighter grey ones are almost dry and ready to go to the glazing workshop.

It was like stepping back in time to simpler times before over-litigation and the chaos of the modern world got in the way.

A day like this is one of the magical treasures that seem to happen or find you when living abroad. It's a wonderful surprise to find amazing things that still seem undiscovered. Hard to find any more!

Oh! I almost forgot! The best part was that we got to take home some of these amazing tiles. The lady who organized the tour is fascinated with the mythical creatures on the tiles that adorn the roofs of the Forbidden City. 

This is my lion.

It is this fascination that inspired her to arrange the tour. She worked on our tour guide the entire time trying to convince him to let us purchase a tile or two and he finally broke down when she told him, "My life won't be complete until I get to take some of those animals home!" With that, they opened up their storehouse and we had a great time shopping in the dark, dusty (such thick dust you wouldn't believe it) store house, picking out our treasures that cleaned up very nicely. 

This is my dragon.

To see all my Flickr photos from the outing, including photos of the village with a faded painting of Mao Zedong (I'm pretty sure that is who it is) on one of the walls and a train rushing past within mere feet of us as we stood on a bridge, click here.

To see all of my past Take 12 Layouts and the corresponding posts, go here.

More inspiration from the Take Twelve Design Team:

Like the Car
Janette Carter-Kincaid
Scrap Inspired
Scrappy Wife, Happy Life
Day by Day
Right Here-Right Now
The Scrapbooking Haven Diva
Scrapworthy Lives
People of the Scrapbook
My Little Blessings
Life is Sweet
A Swoop and a Dart
Endless Possibilities
Yeah, Write

Visit Ella Publishing Co. to link up your layout or photos for a chance to win this month's prize.

 

THE CREATURE (Directed by THE Nicholas)! Coming Soon (maybe tomorrow?), to a blog near you...

Project Life :: Tips for Staying Caught Up

Most of you know that Project Life is a system of preserving photos and memories created by Becky Higgins, right? The idea behind it is to make it as easy and simple as possible to document and record those memories.

The original concept was designed for a photo a day project, using that everyday concept to document life. But it has evolved beyond that. It is much more flexible. It can be used to pair any photos with any story or word. The idea is to make it easy so that there is NO guilt and NO "caught up".

But, let's face it, some of us have an idea in our head about the way we want to do this project and gosh darn, that is the way we are going to do it! Even if that means putting off working on it until we have the time. We start the year off enthusiastic. We collect everything. We make our layouts extra cute.

But then life starts getting in the way. We go a few days without taking a photo. We forget to write down things the kids say. We stop collecting things. We get behind. And we never seem to get back to the project because

the longer we wait, the further behind we get. And then the task of "catching up" seems overwhelming and unattainable. And some where along the way, we give up and it becomes another unfinished album.

This time of year seems to be the crucial time of year when projects like these start getting lost. Then summer will seal its fate with kids home from school and especially with summer travel and other activities.

Don't let this happen to you! Make a little time to "catch up" and get at least get the skeleton of your album done. You won't regret it. If you find some time in the future, you can go back and "cuten" things up. But if you never end up having the time, at least the "meat" has been documented.

I've learned that I like to work on my projects slowly. It works best for me to get the "skeleton" finished. By skeleton, in this case, I mean the photos and the journaling cards and in my case, the ephemera slipped into pockets.

I typically like to have my journaling written, but as you can see in these last few pages, I have blank journaling cards. Let go of hte pressure that every Project Life spread has to be super adorable or even coordinating.

If you are too embarrased to show it on your blog, do it just for yourself. Something imperfectly documented is better than nothing perfectly documented. Don't you think?

I decided I needed to to that this month. I only did two spreads last month so I had to catch up this month. I ended up being a couple of days late, but it was worth it.

One thing I still need to do is finish dating all of my weekly title cards. I can't tell you how having these prepared ahead of time helps me, especially when I like to throw in ephemera along the way.

I was hoping to do weekly summaries, but that hasn't happened. I did it once and never printed it out. I find doing things by hand, is the most efficient way for me. I've also wanted to print out lots of emails, electronic fliers from the kids' school, Ali Edwards' logo for Week in the Life, but so far, they haven't happened.

But what I do have, is lots of memories saved. And that is priceless.

Do you see that sushi grass stuck in the journaling pocket? My son saved that for our book. It is from his new favorite restaurant, Sushi Express (it's a conveyor belt sushi place). He is borderline obsessed with this place. It is on our same block and is cheaper than eating at home, so in the last week, I have taken him three times! Oh, and since it is sushi, it is healthy too. Anyway, I told him if we put that grass along with the menu he grabbed in the PL book, he had to write a journaling card about the restaurant. He agreed. Now that is worth finding just enough time to fill in a few journaling cards and setting up some date cards, don't you think?

[EDITED: May 9, 2012]

Decided to take the plunge and buy this because it is such a great deal. $3.99 per pack AND you get entered in a give away on Becky's blog if you purchase by Wednesday (US time).

Project Life Cardstock - Clementine Collection

You could also buy this, also on sale at 50% off.

Project Life Cardstock - Cobalt Collection

 

 

TIPS FOR KEEPING UP WITH PROJECT LIFE

I'll reprint my tips for making Project Life easier to keep up with, originally published in this post.

Participating in this project for the past two & a half years has taught me a lot and this is what I have been doing to stay caught up most of the time:

1) Create a space where my Project Life album can lay open at all times so I can slide in bits and pieces from the week. This took me several attempts and some rearranging to find a place where it wasn't in the way. 

2) Keep all my Project Life supplies together. I keep mine on a wooden tray with two inch sides. It contains several baskets that hold the cards and one that holds pens and stamps. Currently I am looking for a place in my home where I can keep the tray so it isn't taking up so much of my desk space. I would like to put my sewing machine on top of my desk.

3) Label each week well ahead of time so that it is clear where items from the week go. This way if I do fall behind, and a week doesn't get completed, I can still slide in things from the current week. (I lost my place this year and didn't have new cards labeled to mark the weeks and the weeks started getting away from me so I have a bunch of ephemera and it is not organized, so that will take some work to get that sorted.)

4) Get photos printed regularly. I am not sure yet how often I will get my photos printed. Ideally, I will do this once a week, but at the least, it will be monthly. At first I was printing at home using my own photo printer, but printing ink here in China is outrageously expensive, not to mention, I cannot get any photo paper so it must come from home (Calif). That means if I run out between visits, I'm out of luck. [EDITED 4/7/2012: I print my photos as soon as I have 100+ to print as delivery is free.]

5) I've purchased the Snapfish add on for Lightroom, that way I can set up a smart folder for my weekly Project Life uploads [upload them directly through LIghtroom to Snap fish] and it will make printing photos that much easier, more automatic and less time consuming.

6) This year I am going to WRITE THE DATE (or stamp it) on my memorabilia before I save it. This way if something happens to Plan #3, it will be easy to figure out which week the memorabilia belongs to. (This is a good back up plan for those unforeseen busy times when all the best laid plans go awry, i.e., kids are home for summer, winter holidays when we are busy, busy, busy, family vacation, extended trip home to the States for my family, beginning of the school year, etc.)

7) Saving stories on 100 Journaling Cards - 3" x 4" with Grid Design - I started doing this a few months ago when I started getting behind on my album. The kids would say funny things or I would notice something and I would grab a Journaling Card - 3" x 4" with Grid Design from my Project Life tray and a pen from the journaling basket that sits inside and jot down the antecdote, stamp the date and put it in my tray for the next time I work on my album. 

Do you have any great tried & true Project Life tips to share? Post them in the comments. I'd love to hear.

PROJECT LIFE BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS

 

Margie You are HERE.

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com <--- Go here NEXT.   Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

Week in the Life :: Day 2 Photos

 

I just lost the last 5-6 photos I was posting. Slow internet sucks! I've got to publish this and go to bed! Thanks for stopping by.