As you can see, I had only TWO photos for the first part of this week… but it was a new month (so I could do a card for that) and I had a lot to say, so it worked out.

I’m thankful I had my phone with us this week when we went to vote in the Florida Primary or else I would have missed out on this adorable picture of my kids!

Side 1:

All the pics on Side 2 here came from Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes, that’s just how it is! I might have only 1 or 2 pics from the week… but I find that I can make up for it on the weekend when we are doing more things.

Side 2:

More to come soon!

I may be behind (I’m not counting!), but I still love Project Life—more than ever! It’s honestly changed my life.

First, it’s amazing to be scrapping so close to the events—when I can still remember important little details! That’s awesome.

And the freedom I’ve found in limiting myself to NOT always using my DLSR camera also amazes me. For most of this project, I’ve used my iPod together with Instagram. Then, starting here in Week 4, I started using my crappy little pre-paid phone. I was surprised to discover that the quality was probably better than my first digital camera! I would have never thought to use my camera phone before this. So, that also has had a big impact on my life. I’m capturing moments that I ordinarily would have overlooked!

And to have gotten this far… to have 14 spreads done and in my book. It’s wonderful to flip through the pages and see each week. My kids LOVE to look in the album and talk about the things they remember. And I can already see changes in their little faces from January. Sigh.

So… I love it, if you can’t tell. LOL!

Here are my pages for Week 4:

Side 1:

Side 2:

We met with some good friends in Orlando and I have to thank Charla for sharing these photos with me. She’s such a great photographer! This was the first photo-heavy page I made and also the first time I tried the “D” page protectors for a layout:

As I go along and try new things, new ideas come to mind and I tackle the challenges. Did I forget to take a lot of pics? I have smooshed two slow weeks on to a page each. Or, I’ve gone back and taken pictures of ordinary household things. Too many pictures? I’ve spread them out. It all takes planning and notes… but the whole process is SO MUCH FUN!

I’ll be back with more Project Life on Monday. I have some catching up to do…

For three wonderful years, I had ran the show at The Digichick. But earlier this year, I knew that the time had come for me to pass along the reins to someone else…

When first I took over TDC, I had two kids–just 5 and 2. School didn’t take more than an hour a day.

But now I have two students (plus two toddlers to entertain!) and school takes up at least 5 hours a day!

Then there are all those other things we hate to do—things like cooking and cleaning—that I was happy to ignore. LOL! On a good day here at home, I would have maybe two hours left over for designing AND taking care of the Digichick. That’s just not enough for either of those things. On a good day for my business, my kids would do their math on their own and then beg me to play video games for the rest of the day… and dinner would come from Wendy’s… and my husband would have no clean socks or ironed shirts for work the next day. LOL! I’ve been falling off the horse on one side or the other on any given day for far too long.

By stepping back from running TDC and freeing up my time for taking care of my family and designing alone, I hope to restore some peace to my life. A new kit can wait a week. Customer service can’t. I need that kind of flexibility in my life right now.

Designing has always been my first love and I am excited to get back to focusing on it full time once again. I took over the shop, not because it was my goal to someday be a store owner—quite the opposite! I’ve never really felt comfortable being “The Boss.” LOL! But I thought that I could do a good job of it and I have truly enjoyed my time there. I’m just at the place now where I am fully aware that I really can’t do it all. Honestly, I’ve known this for more than a year… I’ve just been hanging in there, smiling and still trying to make it all work. But then in January I had a big, tearful heart-to-heart with my mom and I finally came to a real breaking point a few weeks thereafter. I knew it really was time to take this step.

The Digichick has had a long history of passing the torch on from one girl to the next. When thinking about who might be the best candidate to fill my shoes, one person came to mind—someone who loves TDC and has been here longer than I have! I am happy to announce that Sinead Turner has taken over the reins and is currently doing an awesome job handling the day to day affairs of the site.

And as for Sugarplum Paperie—I didn’t know what I was going to do at first. So, I took a leap of faith and gave up the reins of TDC before I had found a new home for my designs.

I took another leap of faith and applied to a shop that I have always dreamed of being a part of… and on March 31st I was absolutely delighted to open my new store at the Sweet Shoppe!

Also, I am so excited to announce that I was so blessed to work along side Teresa Collins in creating her new line, Sweet Afternoon! From the moment I discovered digital scrapbooking I dreamed of the day I would be able to work with someone in the paper industry. And that day has arrived! I’m so excited to see this beautiful new line in print. And so very thankful to have had an opportunity to collaborate with someone as talented as Teresa is.

So, that’s what’s been going on with me—and why I’ve been so quiet! I’ve been homeschooling, designing, training, moving shops… oh, my! It makes my head spin to think of it.

Here’s to a happy new beginning!

I used some double-sided paper from K&Co. that matches the green in their quilts.

I cut each piece to be about 2″ x 6″ or 2″ x 5″. Then I folded it in half and used a butterfly punch.

But I thought it might be rather boring, just like that… so I added a tiny strip of paper, just about where the butterfly’s body would be, and I glued a pair of butterflies to it, so when the girls looked up, they would see this:

Isn’t that great?! Raise your hand if you love Pinterest!

Here are my pages from Week 3:

Don’t ya just love my awesome kitchen floor? LOL!

Still experimenting with places to take snapshots of this monster album. I do think I found a solution for the individual pages, though.

Side 1:

Side 2:

This side was fun! Katie and I had gone out to run errands and I thought “Hey! I do have a camera in my phone! Let’s use it!” So we started taking lots of pictures. It was ADDICTING! So I turned them into 3″ x 4″ cards in Photoshop:

Already working on Week 4, but only halfway done today. I’m tackling my first “D” page. I have been using “A” page protectors up until now. I’m trying on a “D” to see what I can do with it, now that I have three weeks under my belt. So far, so good!

The more weeks I finish, the more I adore this album. It feels so good to be scrapping so fast and recording all these “right now” moments…

#2: Case in point, the real highlight of my week was going to Staples on Wednesday to see the new Martha Stewart line of office supplies:

#3: That was taken with my camera phone… which I had all but forgotten about until I started doing Project Life.

#4: Also on Wednesday, I went to Weight Watchers and found out that I had lost 1.6 pounds from my last weigh in (the first week of January). Yay! That was encouraging! This week I have gotten back into a good eating schedule with healthy, low-point things in the house. I’m secretly hoping that letting go for the last two months will actually be a beneficial thing that busts me out of this plateau. I still have about 20 lbs. to lose! I am only half way there…

#5: I am very excited to get to spend the day tomorrow with my friend (and partner in crime on Tell Your Story Every Day), Charla! Her and her family are here in Florida and we are driving to Orlando to spend the afternoon with them. Yay! Since she’s such a great photographer, maybe I can talk her in to taking a picture of all six of us—something I don’t have yet!

Oh! And while I have your ear, I’d love to ask you to please stop by TDC and check out this post about my friend, Erika, who’s having a “Save my House” sale. Thanks!

Have an awesome weekend!

Today I have pictures from my Week 2 spread to share with you. I am just loving this project more and more! The more organized I get, the easier it is. And the more I do it, the better I feel at it. By the end of Week 4, I think I’ll be in a cozy groove.

It’s still a challenge to get good pictures. I’m working on the best room in the house to get the best lighting and I don’t feel like I’ve found it yet.

Here is everything altogether:

Can you tell that this was the first week I took detailed notes? Look at all the journaling cards!

Side 1:

Side 2:

A lot of the journaling also came from posts I wrote here on the blog and at Tell Your Story Every Day. The more I journal, the easier this project is, too.

I’m pretty sure that there is some stitching on every. single. card. this week. It’s my favorite technique, for sure!

I made the front page of 2peas, not once—but twice, last week:

Once with my Week 1 spread and twice with my Joy & Laughter layout! (So, should I say that is two or three times? LOL!) Later in the day, my PL pages were at the top of all three categories (Views, Liked and Bookmarked). Wow! That was exciting! I guess other people liked my pages!

I’m off to Weight Watchers tonight for the first time in two weeks. I haven’t been able to keep up with meetings since November. First it was the holidays. Then the temptations. Then all the illnesses. But I’ve reached a point now where I’m sick of eating the wrong kinds of things and I want to keep moving forward with my weight loss. So… time to get back to the basics and get some encouragement!

Until next time…

Such a great reminder to me, as a person who’s always drooling over something new… and forgetting about the things I had hoped—and even prayed—for that I now have. It makes me sad, that I am such an ungrateful person. This quote helps me to pause, reflect and give thanks to God for all the gifts He’s given me.

Here is my tag for my Project 52 tag album:

My one little word is NOW and this quote encompasses part of what that means to me.

Katie, who is 8 1/2, has been enjoying painting in her own art journal. This past week, she seemed to be dragging right about the time that school typically starts. So I thought to myself “Let’s not start with math. Let’s start with art!” That woke her right up. (Just another of the 1,001 things I love about homeschooling!)

Once Katie was done and she went off to do her math, these two showed up.

Penny had actually been trying to crawl up on the step-stool with Katie while she finished up her painting. Now that sister was gone, she turned to me and said “A-me paint?” I said yes… and the next thing I knew, there was Joshua saying “Oh! Mommy, can I paint?”

So, I gave them some new tags to paint. I let them decorate the back and do whatever they wanted.

It’s so freeing to be doing a craft project like this that I can let my kids join me in. So many other crafts are about perfection, but this one is all about having fun! I love that I can include my kids in this… from age 8 1/2 to age 2 1/2. It’s all fun!

Here are their finished masterpieces (Penny’s is in front. Joshua painted a sunset):

I love them! And I love that I could say yes to this. It was a wonderful morning…

I can already tell that this is going to be an exercise in creative photography to share pictures of my album here on the blog!

Without further ado, here is my Week 1 spread:

The first side:

The second side:

I used a ton of stuff that I had on hand. Some of the things I used included: K&Co. papers, Teresa Collins 6×6 pad, doilies, grid notebook paper, Crate Paper stickers and my sewing machine. (Man, I love to stitch on layouts.)

I ran most cards through the printer but I also worked in some of my handwriting. I was really happy with this—things are both legible and personal. Yay!

I just kept smiling the whole time I was working on this. Nothing has ever been so easy for me! Maybe part of the magic is that if I make a card that I’m not totally in love with, there are other cards to support it. So, everything looks great as a whole and it works together.

Photos for Week 2 are already all printed out. But I’ve been sick… so hopefully I will get some time to play more soon.

Today I wanted to share this page. I love the quote! It was just what I needed… because I really need to internalize this:

I just LOVE that the letter Y got messed up when I was stamping it.

I also started work on a tag album for my one little word:

I plan to make one a week with a quote on each page… and then bind it all in the end. Bite-sized goals!

Travis and I have been teaching Sunday School for the past three weeks. Last week, I spotted a snotty kid, pulling his sleeve across his nose.

::cue the Music of Impending Doom::

By Friday, all my kids were seriously sick with fevers and the Massive Crankies.

Saturday night was worse. Benji was miserable and wouldn’t sleep.

I went by myself to teach on Sunday with only a few hours of sleep. Praise the Lord—He made it a sweet day for me.

But now that it’s all over, I am most certainly sick myself. Boo. It’s not terrible—just annoying!

But if I may rant for just a moment:

Friends, we are under Grace, not The Law.

There is no commandment to be at church every Sunday.

If your kids are sick, have compassion on them and stay home. Have mercy on the rest of the class and the families of those class members and stay home.

Yeah, it stinks. Yeah, you want to go. You feel like you need to go. But we aren’t commended to be there. We are, however, told in Scripture what the greatest commandment of all is: Love.

So, please—show love to those around you the next time your family is sick and don’t drag them to church!

/endrant

::cough, sniffle, cough::