One Little Word | FOCUS | February

Who knew?? It seems I may be able to focus!!

I chose the word FOCUS (or maybe it chose me) as my One Little Word for 2016. At first nothing happened. I still completely lacked focus. Just like always.

So I bought a MudLove band with the word “focus” on it. I wear it every day. Then I bought the word “focus” made out of recycled materials and put it on the wall beside my computer.

At the first of January I wrote about my word – what it means, why I chose it, quotations with the word, plan of action, intentions, . . . stuff like that. And I spent a good amount of time staring at my arm and the wall. Nothing.

All of a sudden it was February – time to assess my FOCUS in January. All of a sudden I had a revelation. For the entire month of January I had actually been focusing on something: Bible study! For a number of years that has been hit or miss for me, mostly miss.

There’s no excuse for me not being consistent with Bible study. I’m home a lot, and I deeply enjoy Bible study. BUT I start it, get distracted easily, and don’t finish. Or I get side-tracked and don’t even start it.

On the first of January I decided to SHOW UP (a mantra of the OLW group) for Bible study by doing it every day (not knowing whether I would actually stick to it). When I was home all day, I did it in the morning after I got ready. If I had to go out first thing, I’d do it as soon as I returned home. Somehow I managed to do Bible study every single day in January. 

Wow. Nothing interfered with my daily Bible study for a whole month, not even the cat who sat on my stuff at least once every session. (Hi, Wu Chow!)

One morning I knew I’d have some time between appointments, so I took my Bible stuff with me. I went to Starbucks and worked on my Bible study while I had coffee and a breakfast sandwich (that’s the remains on the napkin):

Ali Edwards sends out monthly prompts to those in her OLW workshop. For February we are to put our word into practice. So, I’m FOCUSing on a new area, while keeping up with my daily Bible study. For February my practice will be FOCUSing on my photos. Maybe I can FOCUS on two things?

About my photos, . . . Lord help me, I have a ridiculous number of photos. I have grandkids; I have pets. Need I say more?

This month I want to get on top of my photos. Every day I’m going to work on one of these three things:

1. Transferring photos from my iPhone to my computer. (I keep forgetting to do that. This is one reason I wish I had a Mac so they’d transfer automatically. And that’s the only reason.)

2. Deleting photos, both from my iPhone and my computer.

3. Organizing the photos as they’re added to the folders on my computer.

Here’s the page I made for FOCUS for OLW for February:

I’ve printed the page and taped it into my bullet journal. I don’t know how I’m going to mark off the days – by put a letter in each circle to indicate what I did that day (“T” for transferring, “O” for organizing, or “D” for deleting) or by giving myself gold stars.

In the meantime I’m keeping up with what I do each day on the February monthly page of my bullet journal.

See the column on the far side of the left page? That’s where I’m tracking my photo progress. (I got the idea of this minimal tracking method from Ryder Carroll, the originator of the bullet journal.)

Bonus photo from my morning Bible study:

Notice anything? I got a FOCUS mug! (I got it here.) Now I’ll really be able to focus!!

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your comments. I’m off to delete some photos! I am so focused!

One Little Word | FOCUS | January progress

Here’s an update on how I’m doing with my One Little Word this month. As I said in the last post, my OLW is FOCUS. I chose it because I have no focus. Nope, not a bit. Example: I started this post four different times, but got distracted and never finished it. See??

Here’s what I'm doing so far in my journey with FOCUS.

First, I’m wearing my Mudlove band that says “focus.” 

I’ve worn it without taking it off (it’s waterproof) since the 11^th of January, the day it arrived in the mail. I wear it by itself or with other bracelets, from cheap to expensive ones. It goes with everything.

I look at it all the time because it’s there in plain sight. I have it turned to face me to make sure it catches my attention. Although I’m sitting around staring at my FOCUS bracelet, no one else is. To date no one else seems to have noticed it. Or maybe they have and just think I’m weird. 

Secondly, another prompt I bought is the word “focus,” that was handmade from recycled material by Colleen Attaras:

It’s 16 inches in length. Colleen is a mixed-media artist, and she often works with salvaged materials. Isn't it cute?

Even the packaging for my salvaged word was cute. Colleen taped it to cardboard for shipping. Look how she decorated the cardboard:

That’s a handmade bookmark tucked under the “u” of “focus.”

My word is now hanging on a wall by my computer. See:

I could write a lot about the significance of these items to me, but I won’t. (You’re welcome.)

In case you can’t read it, the quote in the upper left corner says, “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” It’s from Albert Einstein.

That’s Isaac Hayes in the photo. Perhaps you recognize him by the chains.

How I came to have a photo of him personally autographed to me is a story for another day. He lived in our neighborhood at the time of his untimely passing. Once when walking by our house our Old English sheepdogs barked at him. He said, “Cool dogs.” There’s a little-known Isaac Hayes fact for you.

Thirdly, besides having FOCUS on my arm and on my wall, I have it in my bullet journal. In the last post I showed the pages I made for FOCUS. Here’s how they look taped into my bullet journal:

So, how am I doing with my word? Horrible. Because I want to FOCUS doesn’t mean I have a clue how to go about it. My mind is still all over the place. I continue to start stuff but get distracted before I finish.

However, I am experiencing success in one area, and that’s my daily Bible reading and study. I’ll write about that later. For now I’ll just say I haven’t missed a day since I decided to get serious about the Bible on January the first. Some days I find myself sitting there for two, and occasionally three, hours with my Bible (actually two), my notebook, my iPad, and my fancy pen-holder bag-thing with its ever-growing collection of pens.

I mention my Bible study not to brag, but to say I’m shocked I am focusing on something and doing it intensely and intentionally. Besides learning a lot and spending time with God, I’m feeling there’s hope I’ll be able to focus on other areas.

Thanks for stopping by!

FOCUS, my 2016 One Little Word

In my last post I shared my lofty goals for this year, which include doing Project Life and One Little Word, along with organizing my life with the help of a bullet journal. This post is about my pages for January for One Little Word 2016.

I’ve started AND completed the January portion of One Little Word. (Note: I started AND finished something!!) 

First, I had to choose my OLW. It wasn’t difficult this year. I used last year’s word – FOCUS – because I sure didn’t use it last year. Oh, how I need FOCUS in my life.

After choosing my word, my next step was to go shopping. I can focus just fine on shopping, so I figured why not start my focusing journey with a successful experience?

What to buy? It seems a lot of OLW folks make their word visible throughout the year by wearing it on a bracelet or necklace or by having some artwork that features the word. I found several Etsy shops who sell such things. I ordered a “salvaged word” from one of them. I’ll show it to you after it arrives.

I bought my bracelet from Mudlove for two reasons: their products are very reasonably priced, and every product purchased provides one week of clean water to someone in need in the Central African Republic. Read about their story here. Here is my bracelet:

 

Side note: I noticed on The Bachelor this week that Bachelor Ben is wearing one of Mudlove’s bands. His says “hope.” That’s not the best show (it's mesmerizing like watching a train wreck), but it’s good advertisement for Mudlove.

After choosing my word and buying stuff, the next step was to figure out the format for my monthly OLW pages. Most people make a separate OLW album. Some people include the pages in their Project Life albums.

I chose neither of those options, because I prefer to reinvent the wheel. I’m putting the pages in . . . (wait for it) . . . my bullet journal!

This is my year to have one place for all my notes, lists, and journaling. I’ll still be working on PL scrapbook albums and on Bible study journals, but everything else will be in my bullet journal.

The OLW pages will be the first thing I put in my bullet journal each month. Win/win! I love my bullet journal so much that I WILL do my OLW monthly pages the first of the month so I can get right into setting up the month itself.

The class materials for OLW include various cards and worksheets to fill out. To aid reinventing the wheel, I measured my bullet journal pages (they're about 8 inches by 5½ inches). Then I made a generic template that size in Photoshop.

I had to do some reworking of the cards and worksheets to make them fit my template. I also jazzed them up a bit, because that’s what the other class participants did. I ended up with four pages for January. They're below.

First January page with some prompts completed:

 

The word “focus” is by Rhonna Farrer of Rhonna Designs. The rest of the cursive words and the stars are from Ali Edwards. The photo is my current Facebook profile picture. It was taken on my birthday while I was holding an overflowing platter of pancakes freshly made by my son Blake. Who wouldn’t have a smug smile when possessing all the pancakes?

Second January page with some more of the prompts completed:

 

The photo on the bottom is from our stay in Destin. I used it to fill blank space, because I didn’t have anything to say on the bottom. And if I think really hard, I can make it fit “FOCUS.” The sun certainly aids focus by keeping the world visible. Those lights provide direct focus on the pier where they’re located. Most importantly, the colors coordinate well with these pages.

Third January page, which started out as a worksheet, but I digitally made it into cards for consistency with the other pages:

 

The font for the title of each card is Floraless Regular. The text is my handwriting that I had made into a font. The lens thing with FOCUS in the center is what I made for my OLW symbol. I found the lens image by googling “lens images.” I’m very clever like that.

The fourth and last January page, which also started out as a worksheet:

 

Here is what the first two pages look like after I printed them and glued them into my bullet journal:

So, there. I’ve made my OLW project public. I hope this will help keep me accountable for following through with this project. And I sincerely hope to learn to FOCUS.

Are you keeping a bullet journal or pursuing a word this year? If so, I'd love to hear from you about your experiences. If you’re interested, I’ve started a Pinterest board for One Little Word: Focus.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS. If you made it all the way to the bottom of  this post, you really have perseverance! I'll try to keep future posts shorter.

Project Life, One Little Word, and Bullet Journaling

Hello blog!

Long time no see. Here’s why: I’ve been in family mode.

Since April my three kids who live out of town (make that, out of STATE) and their families have made a total of seven visits “home.” This has never happened in one year. More recent visits have included having the out-of-town family here for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but not all once.

All the family time didn’t happen here at home. Between the first of June and the end of September, I was on 15(!) planes, going to see these people and my newest grandchild (shout-out to Tom!!). And we went to Destin for a month, where one son and his family joined us for a visit. What a glorious year!

Usually I post about Project Life. Am I going to do it again this year? YES! Well, I’m going to start it anyway. I excel at starting stuff. I stink at finishing.

Besides Project Life, I have more projects in the works. I signed up for Ali Edwards’ yearly One Little Word workshop/class. I sign up for it every year! And, no, I don’t finish it either. This is embarrassing to admit, but I’ve never really started a single year. Nope, not one.

This year will be different all around, she says with confidence!

Why? Because I started bullet journaling. (If you can't succeed at one thing, try doing ten things at the same time.)

I’m a lifelong note- and list-maker. I had them all over my house and my phone. Not anymore. Now they’re all in my nifty bullet journal. This is what will cause me to be more productive this year!! I hope.

If you’re not familiar with bullet journaling, start here. Then check out “Bullet Journal” on Pinterest and YouTube. On Instagram check #bulletjournal and #bulletjournalchallenge. I've also found two relevant Facebook groups: Bullet Journal and Bullet Journal Challenge.

Here’s what I see right now when I search Pinterest for “bullet journal”:

There is so much on this topic on Pinterest. Here is my Pinterest board. Several of the pins above are from Boho Berry, a fantastic bullet journaler. Here is her blog.

What am I keeping in my bullet journal? Monthly logs, monthly goals, daily logs, future logs, etc. I also have collections, like holiday ideas and quotes I want to remember.

One page is called Project Attic, where I’m recording my progress in cleaning out the attic (number of boxes and bags that are GONE and record of time spent). In November one little corner of the attic might have looked like this:

Scary, huh? And that’s the only "before" picture I took. I couldn’t squeeze between all the junk up there to get good photos.

All of this might sound confusing and haphazard, but a bullet journal is very organized through the Table of Contents (tells what's where) and a legend (tells what the various symbols mean). You can read about those in the links above.

Thanks for stopping by!

Next post: my January OLW pages (I've already done them!!)

PS. Several of my, well, several readers messaged me privately to see if I were still living after I went missing from blog world back in September. I sincerely appreciate that. In this big, ole world, it's always nice to know people care. I blog for myself as a sort of journal. If what I write is helpful or entertaining or whatever to others, that's icing on the cake.

Project Life 2015 – Week 18

Subtitle: Don't forget the small stuff!

I’m keeping this post short and simple (unlike my pages). No time for a lot of writing, because I’m about to hit the road again. Well, actually, I’m about to hit the air. =) This time I'm flying to New York City!

Here is my two-page spread for Week 18 of my 2015 Project Life/pocket page album:

main kit used: Hello Cutie, a newsletter freebie* by Amy Wolff at The Lilypad

main source of word art: Ali Edwards

Here is a closer look at the left side of Week 18:

Here is a closer look at the right side of Week 18:

Oh, how I love the Project Life style of scrapbooking! If I were still doing an event-driven scrapbook, I probably wouldn't have used a single photo on these two pages. No big event worthy of scrapping took place this week, BUT lots of little things happened that I want to remember. 

Because of Project Life I'm recording the big stuff and the small stuff. You know what? I imagine it's the "little" things that my kids and grandkids will most enjoy seeing when they're older. Conversely, I'm fairly sure my kids will not be enamored with the zillions of photos I have of them opening presents on their birthdays and Christmas.

Thanks, Becky Higgins, for teaching me that everything about life matters, and for giving me a means of documenting it all.

Thanks, blog followers (all several of you), for stopping by! Enjoy your life and record it! ALL lives are worth recording – that includes of aspects of your life. 

(Some photos are blurred for privacy.)

*Many designers offer freebies suitable for Project Life albums via blogs, newsletters, fan pages on Facebook, and such. Google to find them and sign up to get the freebies.

Project Life 2015 – Week 17

Subtitle: How to make pages without embellishments

(In other words, making pages using the Project Life method . . . sorta)

Here is my two-page spread for Week 17 of my 2015 Project Life/pocket page album:

main kit used: Bloom by One Little Bird

Most word art is by Ali Edwards, whose stuff is available here.

Let me address the subtitle first. Here’s the back story (as it's cool to say now): I have a ton of photos for this week (nothing new there). And for some reason I feel compelled to tell the story behind every single photo I use.

After drastically narrowing down the number of photos to use, I opened two copies of Template A* (one for each side of this week’s two-page spread), added the photos, and told the stories. Then I sat back and looked at the two pages.

Look at them above. There is no room whatsoever for any embellishments, like flair or washi tape or fancy labels or flowers . . .. I guess technically the arrow is an embellishment, but no elements were added just for decoration, which is my definition of an embellishment.

What do you know?! I did this week according to the basic Project Life method, which is to put photos and cards into pockets (on physical pages) or onto templates (for digital pages), and then add journaling. Okay, I did the basic PL method with overkill. Major overkill. That’s just my style. I did save time by not using embellishments.

If you want to get more pages done in less time, use the PL method with fewer photos and less journaling than I did. In other words, don’t copy my style.

Here is a closer look at the left side of Week 17:

Here is a closer look at the right side of Week 17:

A side note: Bloom, the kit I used this week, included almost no embellishments. No money wasted there. =) Bloom doesn't have a lot of color either, just pink, orange, and gray.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and thanks in advance for any comments you leave. Enjoy your life and record it! ALL lives are worth recording.

(Some photos are blurred for privacy.)

Template A is available here for free!

Adding digital stamps to your photos

Subtitle: You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

I love word art. I buy it like there's no tomorrow [Southern expression], right Peter? =) 

I buy sets of word art and use them in Photoshop on photos and journaling cards when I make my Project Life weekly pages. Here is an example from an earlier week this year: 

Specifically, the word art on the above photo is "game night" by Ali Edwards. What exactly is "word art?" To me, it means modifying words and perhaps using different fonts together so that the result is, well, pretty words.

Why use word art? The text on the right top of the above photo was sufficient to tell the story behind the photo, but, in my opinion, the addition of the "game night" word art took this photo up a notch. Also, if you glanced at this photo, you'd have a good idea of what it's about without reading the text block. So, word art is about adding interest and brief bits of info to photos.

Word art is fun to use, too. As I've mentioned before, I'm a SERIOUS collector of digital word art, especially that done by Ali Edwards and Rhonna Farrer. 

Besides using word art on my computer, I also use it on my phone. Many photo-editing apps include word art. For example, I made this for Instragram using a photo I took last week in Torrey Pines City Park (outside of San Diego, CA) and word art from the Vrsly:

Vrsly offers mostly inspirational word art, and it's usually done in brush script, often by known brush script artists. Every day a new Vrsly is offered for one day only. You can use it as is or as an overlay.

Sometimes I'm the last person on the block to figure out something. No, sometimes I'd never figure out something obvious if someone didn't tell me. 

Case in point: I have word art on my computer and mostly different word art on my phone. Who knew you can use word art from your computer on your phone? Thank you, Cathy Zielske, for this video that explains the process. Here's the photo she used as an example:

The white arrow with "LOVE" is from one of her digital stamp kits.

I did NOT know I could import the word art stored on my computer to my phone via Dropbox until I watched Cathy's video. No Photoshop or Photoshop Elements needed.

(The word art by Rhonna overlaps both computer and phone usage. You can buy her word art from her website for your computer, and it's available through her app for your phone.)

Now I can get more use out of the word art I buy for my computer, or, as they say, more bang for my buck. And that's a good thing, right, Peter?

Here's a photo I made today for Instagram showing my brilliant grandson who was piloting a boat on the Intracoastal waters off Jacksonville the other day, although he's only three:

The Ali Edwards' word art is from my computer to my phone via Dropbox. Love.

PS. I only have the free amount of Dropbox storage. For now I'll only transfer word art as I need it. In other words, I'm not copying all of my word art from my computer to my phone, because I'd have to pay for a much larger Dropbox account. And I'd be transferring until the cows come home [Southern expression].

Happy photo embellishing!

Project Life 2015 – Week 16 | inserts!

Subtitle: Too many photos = opportunity to add insert pages

During Week 16 eleven of the thirteen in our family were in our house. The result was several hundred photos. Three of the thirteen were grandchildren. Need I say more?

On the main pages of Week 16 I summarized the week. I'm using inserts to highlight two parts of the week, featuring (surprise!) the grandkids.

Last year I started the ever-continuing process of making our playroom-turned-junk-room back into a playroom, one suitable for little kids, because right now the grandkids are ages 3, 2, and 1.

Since the two from Jacksonville stayed in our house for the whole week, they started and ended most days in the playroom. Here is the insert I did about that:

See the first photo on the second row, which shows my grandson flying out of the tent in the playroom. He couldn't wait to change out of his pajamas before running to the playroom each morning. Oh, to have that much energy upon awakening . . ..

Another fun thing for the kids was playing with bubbles on the deck. I got a giant bubble machine from Amazon. Money well spent. Here are the kids playing in the bubbles:

Note Ellie Mae is never far from the kids. 

To make these inserts I used this DYY Template Builder 8.5x11 set by Lynn-Marie:

To quote Lynn-Marie, "This is a template building tool. It is a very large psd file with coloured blocks that you can turn on and off according to the number of photos you want, their size, and their positions." If you click on the link above, it will take you to a video explaining how it works. Very cool!

I added the background color and the drop shadows from the basic Project Life Template A to each insert page, so they will coordinate with the Week 16 pages. I'll place them back-to-back in an 8.5x11 page protector, and put the that in between the left and right sides of Week 16.

The color and word art on these insert pages are from Raine, the monthly Storyteller kit for April by Just Jaimee, because that's the kit I used to make the Week 16 pages. I do like to coordinate!

Thanks for visiting my blog, and happy scrapping! If you're not recording your life, why not? EVERY life matters.

(Some photos are blurred for privacy.)