Resolution Report Card: February

February is always a tough month for me, and I suspect I’m not alone in that. This year I was either sick with the flu or in rehearsal for most of the time. This meant I was constantly wearing either pajamas or yoga pants and eating mostly chicken soup and toast. So, that’s a no for sporting vintage clothing and cooking fun new recipes. I did however, put together some scrapbook pages that are making me very happy. It’s been really fun to dig through my old photographs. Also, I am close to finishing up not one, but two dresses using old or leftover fabric!

I’ve decided to accept that some months are going to be better than others and focus on not giving up. I’ve got ‘new recipe’ cookies in the oven as I write this and March is my birthday month, so things are looking up!

Confused as to what my resolutions actually are? Get the details here.

Paper Love: Winter 2012

 

Resolution Report Card: January

Having resolved to Use it Up, this month I:

• Went through my scrapbook supplies and ended up giving away about 75% of my paper
• Made two dresses using fabric and a pattern from my stash
• Cooked new recipes from my cookbooks (including quinoa cakes – yum!)
• Did not wear a single vintage item

So, not too bad.  I really need to work on wearing (or framing, or giving away) my vintage clothes, but other than that, it was a pretty productive month.

December Daily Wrap Up

 

I’m still plugging in a few holes (day 14,22 and 25 are happening today), but for the most part, my scrapbook of December is done! It was my first time trying out such a challenge and while it took me a little bit of time to work out my process, I really enjoyed it. I decided not to bother to try working on the scrapbook on the road. It wasn’t a question of supply availability, but time availability. I was quite happy to wait until I got home to finish it.

I didn’t think that I had that many Christmas/December traditions, but looking through the pages I was surprised to see lots of annual events, from the big (Latkepallooza) to the small (holiday blend Just Us Coffee). There are also pages that emphasize the non-holiday, usual day-to-day activities as well. I wanted my scrapbook to reflect reality, not just garland and lights. I’ll definitely be doing this again next year!

You can see Part One of my December Daily here, or the flickr set of images here.

Featured in: This American Life!

this american life, a photo by ericap1 on Flickr.

A few weeks ago, I received a very surprising email. I was contacted by an editor at This American Life about using my scrapbook page about the show in their e-newsletter. Being a big public radio fan, I was very flattered to have been asked to contribute!

Lately, I have been saving up episodes to play in the car when my parter and I head out to see our families at Christmas. Here are a few of my favourites!

1. Matchmakers
2. Save the Day
3. Teenaged Embedded

December Daily: getting ready

Yes, Halloween has been over for about 10 minutes. Bear with me.

This has been the year of month-long challenges.  Self-Stiched September, a hot-yoga challenge (7 days left!) and now, I’m gearing up for December Daily. This is a scrapbooking challenge, which is something I haven’t done in a long time (you can see some of my pages here). The part I like about this challenge is that you do as much before December as possible, so that during the busy times all you need to do is take a daily photo. I’m using this challenge as a means to use up whatever craft supplies I have lying around. I assembled 31 pieces of Christmas-appropriate paper and now have the rest of the month to squirrel away magazine clippings, pins, and various other ephemera to complete it with.

Okay December. I can wait. For now.