W – for writing…

…all day long. I have been for two days now. Of course I had to make a two pages spread for my “Me – The Abridged Version”. How could I fit my life into a one page layout? I am 48 years old. Even if I had a rough idea of what I wanted to write about - it takes time. The words are in my tag book, so I am set to go. But I still have a few letters without words. Like Q…I may have to look into some spanish words. And even worse, my office program do not do spell checks in Norwegian. That means I have to make a test print of every page and carefully look for wrong spelling. Anyway – I am ready to dive into L.

 

I have finished one more page for my Beautiful Evidence album.

 

And what have I learned this last days?

September 11

I learned to trust my gut feeling. Doing my hair Friday morning I was thinking; It is time for a haircut. I did look in my appointment card to see if I had an appointment, but no I did not. Two hours later the hairdresser called and asked for me. So – I got my haircut.

 

 

September 12

I learned that coming home to a clean house with no clutter is a good.

 

 And it is still time to dive in to the L before I call it a night.

Y – for years…

 

September 10

I learned that the years are becoming to short. Realising that my brother turned 55 was a little shocking. That means I am almost there – in the middle of life…

Happy birthday big brother!

I took some time this morning working on the layouts for Jessica Sprague`s Beautiful Evidence Class. I had big plans for getting up to date with those layouts today, but that was before my hairdresser called and told me she was waiting for me. Anyway, here are a double layout about being together:

 

 

One evening shift and one morning shift – then it is weekend again…and so it goes. Years passing.

F – for family…

 

September 8

I learned that I am ever so grateful for having a sister in law with too much energy and for her brother who is an awesome handyman.

When the rain is pouring in the storm it is nice to know that the water stays on the outside. That was not the case one month ago. Now, the leaking  roof is another problem all together…At least it`s not my roof.

To follow up on today`s theme, here is the next layout from Jessica Sprague`s class:

I am not totally happy about the photos. I find it boring to dig out nine photos. Now – off to report today`s hard work on the board at Simplify 101. That makes me really happy.:)

P – for proud…

…of being aunt and great aunt.

 

September 6

-I learned that PAS – photo album scrapbooking is fun. I knew that but I had forgotten. Now I think I will make some more. Only – it is important to decide what photo to include beforehand. Otherwise it will be too time consuming.

-and I learned that Sunday is a good day if I get out of bed and there are no to-do list waiting for me.

I think I will make one more PAS-album while waiting for the storm to hit.

O – for obsessiv…

…would describe me accurately and will make a good entry in my“MeTAV-album”. At the beginning of my vacation I made a time-line. I had to start there because I had to face the fact that I don`t remember the details anymore. Maybe I never did. Working my way up, from 1961 and up to date, did awaken some forgotten memories and made it easier to see things in perspective. It is hard for me to pinpoint the stories that make me who I am, but I keep remembering all these little things. Like when I was a little girl and my grandparents would come downstairs every evening to watch TV, something that finally forced my father to buy them a TV. I remember that every Sunday evening we would gather to watch “The Ashton Family”. The series went on and on, and every Sunday we would watch. When I close my eyes I can see the scenes and the actors.

It will be difficult to edit the entries, so I may have to use more than one page for each letter. Because when I finally sat down to actually write the stories I find it hard to stop. 350 words don`t leave much space for the stories.

Today I finished the to-do list I made before starting my vacation. I have removed all clutter and cleaned the whole house and still there is the weekend left before going back to work. It feels so good. But, I know I have to work hard to maintain the cleaning habits. C – cleaning, the chores I do not like. Yes, I`m on a roll.

I will go back and write some more while I have the inspiration…

Overcommitted…is that a word?

If so – it will be a good word for Me – The Abridged Version. I think I have lost control. To many things I want to do at the same time. So many enjoyable things to chose from. Today I couldn`t chose so I started cleaning my hall. Good choice. If you are bogged down with clutter and have trouble maintaining order in your home, I highly recommend joining in on Aby Garvey`s  next class starting next Tuesday. The forum is already on a roll.

So –  no scrapbooking today – but here is a layout from Jessica Sprague`s Beautiful Evidence class.

Influences…I love Kolette`s quote; I am my own work in progress – so true.

Totally forgot…

…it`s Friday! I got so busy cleaning and organizing in my craft room that I forgot everything else I should have done today. A well – there is always Saturday. At least I did my digi layout early this morning.

 

Since I have no sense of colours at all it was a little surprising to find blue stuff all over the place. That must be my mothers influence.

Paper clutter…

…is the most difficult thing to handle. And even worse if you are a paper scrapper who loves to take classes. The stacks of paper grows and grows. In the beginning I had to print everything and every paper was put in a binder. I have nine of them. And I have never – ever opened one of them. Maybe I will one day? Or maybe not… But that is not the problem. The binders are stacked in a cabinet and are not hurting anyone. It is the paper that are not in binders that create the problem. Because somewhere in those stacks of paper there are one or two treasures hidden.

I signed up for Aby Garvey`s Paper Clutter class weeks ago but she lost me in the third lesson. I wanted to set up a perfect system for all my papers and made it very difficult for my self. Mistake number one- I gave up without trying. Mistake number two – I didn`t ask for help. Well, I am stupid, but I am not going for mistake number three. With five days to go before the class close – I set the timer and went to work. 

I am not done. Still have a long way to go, but I am making progress. And I have a pretty good idea of how I want my system to work. While the rest of the house is completely decluttered, my work space is not. I did organize my scrap things at the beginning of the year, and that is still working great, but I have been moving things in here for three months without taking action and it shows. Well – that ends now.

Good thing I made my layout for “Beautiful Evidence” early this morning.

Love the beautiful papers Jessica provided us with. Good thing I`m working digital these days…

Christmas journaling…

…is soon up, but first there is a few things that need to be done. Like getting the house ready. I figure that if I do that now,  the preparations for Christmas will be so much sweeter. I never have the energy to clean before Christamas anyway. Aby Garvey`s free class “I don`t know where to start” is a great start to get moving. I have signed up for her next Organizing class as a alumni you get it for half the prize and it  works wonders for my motivation. Been cleaning all day.

Talking about wonders. In Jessica Sprague`s class we learned how to work with the magic tool today. Oh I loved that one. It made my day.

 

Can`t wait to play more with the magic.

This two looks like they are born to sit on the kitchen counter.

To declutter…

…may make me a happy girl, but it does nothing for my inspiration. I am thankful that  Jessica Sprague`s class Beautiful Evidence started today. Working on the computer is easy when the desk is clean. It never occurred to me to look in the classroom to see if there were any homework before class started so it came as a big surprise last night to find a ton of things to do. It would have been so much easier if I had the photos gathered before I started to work on the assignments. But, I am okay.

The awesome templates Jessica gave us are big and makes my computer slow down a bit, but  if I were to complain about anything it would be that there are to much beauty to choose from. I took the first template for a test drive and came up with this:

All about me. Seems to be this years theme…Maybe a little to much me these days? I think it is, so I made one for my sister in law also:

So – we might have  the same passion in life…If I had had any hope that she would have an answer to give me I would have asked her what was the most important things in her life these days. I don`t think she would have answered. So I am taking the liberty to do the picking.

These pages are 12×12. I have no idea if it is possible to print that size in Norway. If it is it will expensive. So I re-sized to 8×8 and did a print here at home. It looks good. I doubt I will make an album for me, but some pages will be printed and put in somewhere.

Aby Garvey`s free decluttering class started today. It feels so good to get going again. I started working on my to do list this morning and I love to have the message board in the class as motivation. I am fit to fight and ready to go to morrow morning.