it’s WITL time again! :)

SO excited! I had so much fun documenting our week last year and can’t wait to do it again. I know it’ll look different because for about three days during that week I’ll be out on some work. I have a lot of ideas on how to do it–one option is to just use Lynnette’s templates, but I may go even more simple than that–like photos on one page and text on another. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my WITL album last year, but man it was a lot of work!

Are you joining this year? It really is a lot of fun when a bunch of people do it together! For more info, visit Ali Edwards’ blog where she details everything about this project.

just popping in…

To say I’m on the Sweet Shoppe Designs Tutorial Blog with a quick tut on scrapping non-theme layouts with theme kits Let me know if you have other tips and suggestions for playing with theme kits and doing non-themey layouts!

spring cleaning update!

Apparently what I need to keep updating this blog is to do more spring cleaning, haha! But seriously, giving myself some organizing goals is working for me so far. I’ve started the merciless purging and am about 80% done. I can’t wait to see how much space I’ve carved out for myself. After this will be the (gulp) getting-layouts-printing-ready phase.

Also, at the end of the month I’m thinking of investing in another EHD solely for my scrapping goodies, and then keep one EHD solely for my photos, and then use Nap for backup. I’m pretty sure I can get a really good deal on one given how prices are dropping as bigger-capacity devices pop up.

Anyway, as part of my cleaning up is fixing up (FINALLY!) two of my 2011 projects and giving them an update. Aaand I’m giddy because I figured out how to create a gallery within a post! (Oh the geeky things that delight me!) So, here are my updated 2011 Faves and Thanx Project posts. Thanks for taking a peek!

yup. still here :)

I’ve had a wicked busy February and March so far, but sooo rewarding, thank goodness! I really feel like I’m MOVING work-wise I’ve done a ton of local travel, but for the rest of this month I’ll be largely home-based, so I decided to jump into this for the week:

Ooooh yeah! It’s time for my yearly purging of scrap supplies I have no intentions of using anymore, and homaighad I’m thinking of FINALLY getting some layouts ready to print. Like maybe 100. I need to figure out how to batch-process. And then hope, once I’ve started it, that my poor laptop doesn’t keel over.

Today I got the ball rolling by backing up some files and deleting about 50GB from the lappie harddrive, woot! Tomorrow I’ll organize some new scrap supplies, then get to purging. I know as of September last year I have about 180GB worth of product. Aaaand I only return to play with about…30% of it? That may even be a way bloated percentage, lol.

So here we go! Is your computer metaphorically bursting at the seams? Wanna see if you can clear some precious harddrive space in your EHD? Wanna laugh at my pathetic attempts at digitally cleaning up and cheer me on anyway? You can join us over at the Nettio Designs blog, where Lynnette’s hosting this awesome Clean-a-thon

the update

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So, yeah, wow. January was a month just filled to the brim with stuff on the offline front. In a nutshell I had to deal with events like a friend’s death and another friend’s serious illness. I had another wake-up call on the health front. I wasn’t sleeping or eating well. But the bulk of my time these days has been split with a huge writing assignment and some new work I’m challenging myself with. It’s work that surprisingly, I like doing–it engages my mind and body so  I’m not hunched over the laptop the whole day, it pays well, and I love the people I work with. It also means in the next few weeks I’ll be doing some local travel, which will cut into my online time quite a bit. Some things had to fall by the wayside for the moment, and I chose to make this blog one of them. 

However, some cheering-up things as well:

- Due to a good friend’s awesome offer, I am now a happy iPhone 4 owner It amuses me to note that the bulk of the apps I’ve managed to add to it largely have to do with memory-keeping (Instagram, Pixlrmatic, Moment Diary, Photobooth, etc). So far, so good. I’m still not a fan of the phone’s keypad and find myself holding my breath every time I use it, so that usually after every text message sent I let out a gasp. It’s weird.

- Also, since my online time will be limited that I can’t post to this blog as often as I want, I decided to revive my Tumblr where I can post bits and pieces of life happening for me. So far it’s filled with the random stuff I photograph in Instagram, but what the hey, I like it, lol. 

- I’m also really happy to say that so far I’ve managed to write an Oh Life post every day since January 1. It’s become my primary means of journal documentation and I like that I’ve been keeping up so far. 

- I’m still scrapping! Granted, it’s more challenging now to find the time, but scrapping is one of those guaranteed-to-make-me-feel-good activities so I’m not giving it up  

- Since I don’t really have a yearly project to be on top of, I plan on doing monthly roundups like Katie’s been doing for the longest time on her blog. It’s simple, straightforward, and allows me to consolidate how I document everything (photos, Oh Life, Evernote, etc)

That’s pretty much it. This blog will still be a dear project of mine to tackle this year, but for the moment, I’m choosing to focus and MOVE where I’m going now. Come follow my Tumblr if you want more of the daily, random updating, lol.

PS/ Looking for a photo to use for this post, I stumbled on this and it made me giggle. Happy Monday!

being spontaneous

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I was supposed to write another blog post for this week, but given how I’ve been feeling I figured having this out now would be better. From the previous sentence, obviously I’m a planner (or maybe controller is more apt, haha). Typing out a blog post by the seat of my pants qualifies as being “spontaneous” in my book. So spontaneous I’ll be today.

Last night I had the equivalent of about three hours’ sleep. I kept tossing and turning. My mind jumped from topic to topic, idea to idea, and all in a crazy randomness–from what to eat the next day to a worry about an upcoming meeting to the book I was rereading to get to sleep (it was City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, btw) to the fluffy (or as I like to call them, “foofy”) doggies I saw in our compound a few hours earlier. I couldn’t shut my mind up, it refused to wind down. I woke up sleepy but focused, thank goodness, because I was able to work and handle chores that needed to be handled.

That’s when it hit me: I was so…no, TOO inundated with…stuff. Like, there is SO MUCH stuff I stuff myself with, mentally and emotionally. What with Facebook, Twitter, Feedly, YouTube, and everything else in between, I crowd my brain with so much stuff and overstimulate it that it kinda resembles…I don’t know. Something that runs amok but with its guts overflowing

(and now, as I’m typing this, a Facebook chat window just popped up)

While a lot of this “stuff” can be considered unnecessary clutter, a good chunk of it really falls under my interests and serves to inspire me. However, now it feels like TOO MUCH inspiration. TOO MANY awesome ideas. TOO EVERYTHING to the point that I feel overwhelmed and have degenerated into overthinking a lot of what I’m doing. Which in turn freezes me from actually MOVING and doing what I want to do.

Case in point: I have TONS of ideas from Pinterest on exercise and eating better, but as of today I’ve yet to actually start a regimen. *blush* I’m frozen in indecision. Then this afternoon I had the random thought of “Oh, frack this. Just grab your mp3 player and GO OUT, Lex.”

I need more moments like those for my controlling, unspontaneous self, lol.

And THEN for a looooong time now I’ve been reading all about productivity: bookmarking blog posts, making Evernote entries, reading and rereading blogs, checking out web apps, etc etc on being more productive and getting things done. In the meantime, I’ve been kept busy doing all these little things for work, but feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing. Then i realized it was also because none of what I was doing had any meaning to me. Or that I was too filled with stuff to filter out what I really wanted to do versus what I felt I had to do.

By that last statement, I don’t mean I won’t fold and sort the laundry just because I don’t want to do it. But a lot of my day-to-day writing work i was doing because I had to. Many of my assignments I couldn’t really change, but I could change how I felt about them. I could put meaning to them if I wanted to. Or I could choose to do something else entirely.

So I just went ahead and chose what I wanted to get done in a day. Following loosely the Get Things Done concept, I had my top three to-do’s up front and center on a digi-post-it on my desktop. I’ve done two of the three, but I’m giving myself a pass and letting go of the disappointment in not doing the third. Tomorrow is another day.

Also, I’m going to log off from the computer early tonight–I realized I spent WAY too much time online (comes with the job), but that I’m at fault for finding just as many online distractions from my online work, lol. There is a lot of things I want to do, and by letting myself get distracted I’m just giving in to the fear of doing it.

Finally, I need some daily quiet time. I realized that with working at home I’d gotten so used to working at any and all hours of the day–and night–that most of the time I crashed into bed exhausted. Or, like last night, I would toss and turn like a beached fish. So I’m giving myself an hour to center myself, quiet down, and empty my mind. I don’t really do meditation, but I do like to ground & center. I’d fallen out of doing that whenever I got stressed.

Aaaand if you’ve gotten this far, thank you! I know my being spontaneous also means not stressing at the organization of this post, haha. Instead, I’ll leave you with some awesome articles that I’d read that–despite all the information stuffing of my brain–I remembered that resonated in my heart. Enjoy

ETA: This newsletter of Ali Edwards’ just landed in my inbox and I think its message is totally perfect as well. The whole concept of subtraction appeals to my editor heart.

Peppermint’s finding where joy lives in her.
Lynnette’s 2012 Scrapbooking Resolutions.
Ali’s Working Through Creative Fear.
30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself.
100 Days with No Goals.

I love this.

 

I do not have to be perfect to have something to offer. –Jenny Meyerson

OLW + 2012 plans

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On December 31 I looked up and for the first time in a very long while, with the brilliant colors of fireworks right in front of me, I felt full of hope and excitement for the coming year. When the hubs said, “It’s midnight,” and dozens of fireworks punctuated his statement, I smiled and thought: Here we go. It’s 2012.

I think because for the first time, I felt like I had things planned. It wasn’t about getting through the year, it’s about making it as awesome as I possibly can.

My One Little Word for 2012 is MOVE. As in:
> move on from past hurts and damaging, self-sabotaging thoughts;
> move my @ss and become physically stronger by incorporating regular exercise into my days again;
> move forward on plans I’ve thought about, written about, and planned about in the last couple of months;
> move to my own rhythm and beat and focus on what I love, never mind people’s judgements.

For the first time, I feel so ridiculously excited to work on this word in my life. I feel it resonate in me and become a mantra I mutter under my breath when I am faced with choices to make or tasks to do. When my heart settled on this word, as gently and snugly as wrapping an afghan around myself, I felt hope again. I felt like I could do anything. Which is pretty awesome to feel at the beginning of the year.

In fact, I felt it even when I got a bad case of allergic rhinitis (uncontrollable sneezing, eye-watering, sniffles, etc) due to all the gunpowder smoke and residue after all the fireworks. That counts for something, right?

I do have a major project in the works that I’d love to finish and share by end of the quarter. I started work on it in November and took a break in December, but I really want to get back to it. As for life goals for the year, I’m choosing to focus on three major things: this blog–which I am restructuring to be more of a scrapping blog than anything else (with bits of my life thrown in); my overall health–a really scary incident in December drove home the point that my life has gotten too sedentary, and I choose to love myself and take care of myself with regular exercise and a better diet, which I want to document here to hold myself accountable; and celebrating my worth with little projects and tasks that I enjoy doing, which include scrapbooking, taking care of the hubs and our home, and reconnecting with friends. The last bit I am being really flexible with: I do have a list of stuff I’d love to accomplish, but one of my other mantras is to be gentle with myself if I don’t get to do all of them. It’s been a struggle, but I’m learning how to forgive myself and just keep moving forward.

By keeping it simple and streamlined, I know I can create more movement, which is ultimately what I want 2012 to be known for! Now I’d like to know: what do you want your 2012 to be about? What are you aiming for? What are you excited about?

happy 2012!

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I’ll be fixing up some stuff around here, prepping myself to really focus on this blog for 2012! It’s all part of making this year AWESOME!

end-of-year project updates

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I’m supposed to be wrapping gifts at the moment–I can’t believe Christmas is two weeks away! I haven’t been in a holiday mood for many years now. I often feel like I’m going through the motions of whatever holiday obligations I have in the last few years (with the exception of going to reunions and Christmas parties, lol). Instead, I was going over my list of projects I’ve been involved in this year and finalizing/fine-tuning what projects I’d like to do for next. I have to admit that it’s largely in part to this week’s topic on The Digishow. 

That said, here’s a quick recap of what I’ve accomplished this year:

- Thanx Project: I’ve been doing this off and on, and am happy with the cards I’ve been able to scrap. It’s easy with a template. I’m going to continue this for 2012, but I’d like to be more regular about it. Maybe posting 10 cards a month would be fun The awesome thing with this project is I never had a set end-date for it. After all, we can’t ever run out of things to be grateful for, right?

- 2011 Faves: Inspired by Lynnette’s own series of faves, I’ve been surprised at myself at being able to keep up with it! I’m in the middle of documenting my December and have scrapped until October. I really enjoyed doing this this year and am thinking of how to take it to the next level. My layouts are posted in respective galleries but I haven’t updated this main one. Once I finish my November layout I can update it, methinks. 

- New52: Sadly, I stopped blogging about what I was doing maybe in February or March! But I kept up with it, and have missed only about three weeks! I kept thinking about how I was going to document them properly (aside from simply listing them down each week) and in the end just got overwhelmed with it. LOL I have no idea what I’m going to do with this list and have a vague idea of putting it together into a double-page layout. 

- A Week In The Life: SO happy that I got to participate in this and scrap the whole thing! It was difficult the last three days and I vowed to make my album simpler for next year. Yep, I think I’d like to do this again next year–it would be awesome to see how similar/different our lives are now, especially as we moved this year. 

- Project Scrap Stash: Tackling the very daunting task of finally organizing my digi supplies terrified me, but Kayla Lamareaux convinced me to do it, lol. I’m SO SO happy I finished it and it’s really made a difference when I am looking for specific items in my stash. Certainly it’s curbed my shopping, haha! However, right now I’m busy syncing/reconnecting my catalog to my stash folders because I moved to a laptop and Windows 7. It’s taking a while, partly because of how I imported my previews and partly because I’m just so overwhelmed with holiday stress, gah! I hope to finish this by end of the year. 

- Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge: This is definitely one of my favorite accomplishments for the year! I hadn’t been reading regularly at all since…college? So I set myself up with the goal of reading 30 books. Well, in April I ended up doubling my declaration, and at this moment, I’ve finished 76 books (127%)! Not only did this goal get me back into reading and finding new books, but I’ve also found new manga titles to read as well and devoured a fair amount of volumes, lol! 

In an effort to streamline my life and so I have better focus, I’ve been busy mentally “paring down” what i don’t need and what I want. In a way I *am* happy that having an editor’s mindset allows me to be almost merciless in taking away what I don’t need, even when I’m in the iron grip of being sentimental In the meantime, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished and look forward to a more productive 2012!  

What projects have you finished this year?