enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

project life : week 25.

Week 25 and I still love this project.

(click to enlarge & the images above will be [somewhat] clearer)

Playing a bit of catch-up today as I was out of town last weekend.

The left side is all photos & stories from the first half of the week before we left and then the inserts and right page cover the trip.

The first insert is a coin pocket page that I filled with instagram photos & papers collected on the trip. This is at least the third time I have done this and it never gets old. Grids are my favorite way to display multiple photos.

Into one of the top pockets, I added a piece of cardstock an a chipboard frame from American Crafts.

And then the outside of one of the  lower pockets, I stuck a circle sticker with more text.

I did the same on the backside to create a see-through square.

The second insert is a trimmed Design E pocket page. I included my text from this blog post and then a few 6x6 photos.

I'm taking a risk (except we're talking about PAPER, so using the word "risk" is just ridiculous) here and leaving a few pockets blank (with purple "placeholder" post-it notes). I am anticipating more wedding photos popping up over the next few weeks and when they do, I'll print them and work them in.

Other than that, fairly standard stuff.

supplies / Paper Source circle labels, Martha Stewart & Avery labels, American Crafts chipboard letter stickers & chipboard frame, "And we'll be Jolly Friends" sticker (c/o Scrapbook Circle), Office Depot shaped paper clips, Elise Joy TODAY IS & THIS stamp, coin pocket page, Design A & E page protectors (which are available in this variety pack),  Clementine core kit, Bebas quote font. I use a Fiskars corner rounder (it's not amazing, but it's lasted the longest of any corner rounder I've ever had). I am using a Zig Millennium 0.1 pen and Recollections glossy marker throughout this album.

Confused by Project Life? Start here. Have a question about how I am tackling this project each week (including questions about the quotes)? Check here. See all my Project Life posts here.

around here.

Sending June out the door & ushering in the crazy that is July. There is a lot on my list this next month and I'm arming myself with lots of scratch paper, Pandora, coffee & water to tackle it. (I keep telling myself things will calm down in August and then I remember that that's the month I want to completely redo my website, set the blog workshop to run again and prepare for a fall stamp launch.) Cannot complain about being busy though. I remember many past weeks of being bored to tears. (This was before I had my taped desk to keep me smiling.)

Couple of things :

I have been getting questions about how I add handwriting to my photos. For our anniversary, Paul got me this Wacom tablet and I have been playing around with it ever since. It has a learning curve, for sure, and I am no where near ready to share a tutorial or tips. But I got a lot out of this post on A Beautiful Mess this week and you might too if you're considering one!

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY for stamps. Adios! Shop now, or forever hold your ink pads.

Happy weekend!

thoughts on monthly goal setting.

We're halfway through the year. Already.

Instead of setting new year's resolutions this year, I decided to re-evaluate at the beginning of each month what was most important and pick a few small things to focus on. At the end of the month, the list refreshes completely and I start working towards new "goals" - (Yes, I use the word loosely). My word for 2012 is "choose" so each month, picking these small tasks helps me to remember I am choosing what I do and how I spend my time each day.

I have found this method of goal-setting to be pretty inspiring. It works well with my personality, as I totally believe if something sits on my to-do list for too long, I should toss it out the window. As you'll see below, I have not accomplished everything on my lists each month. Although I would LOVE to cross everything off, the focus of these goals is more to bring intention into each month and give me a chance to reset every few weeks.

When I look at the past six months (with things I actually accomplished underlined), it's clear that these lists have held the fun & creative stuff. They are not chores. They are not of the "keep the house from looking like a bomb just went off" or "spend less money" variety (which are also things that I am always trying to do). I like to think of these lists as the positives - things I am choosing to add to my life.

I also notice that each monthly list actually reminds me more of that was happening the month prior than the month I was actually working on the tasks. Obviously, in late February, Paul had just returned home, so my goals list for March was more tongue in cheek - I wanted to enjoy our time together. And then the month of April was stressful and difficult for the two of us. The simplest thing I could think to put on May's list so the month could be better was to "be kind" to Paul. That might seem like a strange thing for a goals lists - I should be doing it anyway, all the time, right? But for me, it was about making it a true intention and thinking more carefully about what I said to him and how I spent our time together. In May, something major shifted in my attitude. Our relationship improved & I noticed a difference in how I felt, both physically and mentally. Making a conscious effort to "be kind" helped me to change my attitude on a lot of other things and I think was responsible for a lot of the good that developed in May and has carried on to June.

Before wrapping up here, I want to address the no email checking goal I set for June because I spent so much time talking about it at the beginning of the month. I'd say I succeeded about 35% of the time. But really it felt like 100% because while I thought the point was to set and stick to a hard and fast rule, it turns out the point was actually to free myself from email stress. And that happened. Saying I "couldn't" check after 6pm meant I had an out. I didn't have to check. I did a good job being present and not pulling up email on my iPad or phone in the evenings. But if I had an extra 20 minutes to myself at my computer at 8:30pm and wanted to open my inbox and tie up loose ends before morning - I could. And I did. Goals, and this one in particular, should help to relive stress - not create it.

I really could go on and on about goal-setting, reflection and making small life changes that add up to big ones. I have thinking about all of this so much because I am currently developing a workshop for Big Picture on the topic of goals. (yay!!) It's something that I had never thought of but when it was suggested at our brainstorming session something immediately clicked. A-ha! This is exactly what I want to teach. More details on the class to follow.

garden update.

Since I last shared...

...I saved my mint plant's life. It was looking terrible after a large "harvest" for mojitos when we had family in town back in April. I didn't even share photos in my May update, it looked that bad. I was ready to toss the whole thing in the trash and buy a new plant, but at the last second decided it deserved another shot. I trimmed all the leaves with giant holes in them, re-potted it into a larger container and added fresh, nutrient rich dirt. It's recovered really well - seems like it just needed more space and some pruning.

...I've "harvested" basil twice for pesto.

Most recently was yesterday afternoon, and as you can see in the before & after photos, they look pretty wimpy now. I decided to trim each plant way back (using my herb trimming method) because it seemed like every "sprig" was producing a flower - and with basil, you want the focus on leaf production, not flowers. We'll see how things go. Hopefully, that was what they needed, and if not, we'll get at least four meals out of all the pesto we were able to make with that batch.

...I realized I have been over-watering my lemon tree. It has not been doing so well and based on the yellow leaves, I think it's got to be excess water. I've cut back and it's looking a little less droopy, but those weeks of too much mean we lost a lot of little lemon buds. Bummer.

...I've got oodles of little green tomatoes. I have five tomato plants. Two have at least 20 little tomatoes each. One plant has just one giant tomato. And the other two have no fruit to show for themselves, but a few yellow flowers, so hopefully they're just late bloomers. Like a total novice, I didn't save all of my plastic markers so I don't even know what type of tomato is doing what. FAIL. Next year, I'll be keeping a diligent garden journal (on paper) and I'm awkwardly excited about it.

weekend wedding adventure.

Over the weekend, we celebrated our friends' wedding in Humboldt County, California. We left Thursday, spent the night in San Francisco, then drove the rest of the way Friday. Sunday, the day after the wedding, we drove back to Berkeley, spent another night and finished the drive home on Monday. I didn't get great photos (happily, other folks did) but made great memories.

Here are three interesting things from the adventure that I want to note :

one. As mentioned, this was quite the road trip. 1300 miles and four days in the car for one party. But we both agreed early on, and realized again yesterday that it is always totally worth it to see friends. We were talking on the way back home about how there are so many events we (or Paul) will have to miss due to deployments and the intense schedule that comes with being a medical resident. When our schedule provides an opening, we cannot afford to let an event pass us up.

two. At the ceremony, I teared up more at the wedding vows then the usual processional. Vows are a big deal. I don't think, before we were married, I had ever really listened. I understood the gist of course, but not how insanely big and demanding wedding vows truly are. They ask a lot of the couple. We've been married for just two years, and have a lot of road ahead of us, but with each wedding we attend, I get something new out of them and re-realize their power.

It is such an honor to hear your friends speak such meaningful words outloud and commit to each other. It is also sort of impossible for me to hear them and not think about what they represent in my marriage. At the end of the ceremony, almost like he was reading my mind, the pastor said something along the lines of "...and for those married in attendance, let what you witnessed here today be a renewal the vows you once made to each other." Cue goosebumps. That's good stuff.

three. This beautiful outdoor wedding was rained on. I say rained on and not rained out because the ceremony and receptionhappened despite the rain and it was a truly fantastic wedding. Originally, tables for dinner were set with about half under a tent and half unprotected on the grass. As the mist turned into a down pour, most guests crowded together under the tent and people ate standing up or took turns rotating through tables to sit down.

At first, that might sound like a crisis. But in reality, it was probably the best way ever to encourage guests to mingle. Usually at weddings, I end up socializing most with the eight people at my table. In this situation, I wandered and chatted and made new friends and caught up with all the old. It was pretty awesome. I know for sure I wouldn't have had such great conversations with as many people if I had been glued to a table.

And, of course, part of what made everything so good was that Hillary and John handled the whole event with such grace and a positive attitude. At the end of the day, the only important part is that you get married to your favorite person. They obviously got that and their love and high spirits made it impossible to not have a good time in the rain at the wedding.

Congratulations, Hillary and John. Thank you for inviting us!

random iPhone photos from the trip are shared above. highlights : those pink pants are Old Navy. We stayed at the Phoenix Hotel in SF and it had neon doors and a killer bar/resturant called Chambers. Up in Blue Lake we stayed at the Blue Lake Casino (and walked away up $80 at black jack). The coffee in the hotel room was so good I could drink it black. The yellow dress was from Nordstrom (and not that short on me!). The wedding after party at the hotel was amazing. On the way back down we stayed at the recently renovated Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley and it had a peace sign in the lobby. We hiked the Strawberry Canyon fire trail that Paul used to run up in college. I was, once again, stunned by the beauty that is the bay area and northern California.