a day in the life: april

For the longest time, I’ve been feeling a little like I’ve run out of stories to tell. It’s resulted in me not having much inspiration to pick up the camera (or in this case, my phone). I needed to get excited documenting our lives again, especially as at the time, we were also planning our trip to Bangkok.

I found this free class by Ali Edwards where she details some journaling techniques she employs for her storytelling, and her first video suggested doing a “day in the life” type of documenting. I had participated in her Week in the Life back in 2011 (and took photos in 2012, but did not do anything with them). I figured it was worth a shot. So I took some photos, screenshots, etc on April 22. It was a relatively light day for me, though I had been gearing up for a program and beating an article deadline.

THE DETAILS | Woke up to what’s been the general temperatures of Manila these days. It’s definitely summer. Managed to make a dent in my email. Gearing up for work involves playing my Morning Playlist and drooling over Pinterest. Simple breakfast of pan de sal and my sole cup of coffee for the day. Good an awesome surprise in finding out I had won Get It Scrapped’s massive giveaway of a subscription to Masterful Scrapbooking + $50 worth of digi products! I was extra thrilled to see that Debbie had recognized my name and username from Twitter and The Digishow While working, also consuming my first liter of water in the morning. It’s been a habit I’ve formed since January to drink at least 2 liters/day. The hubs leaves for work, around 11AM. Still full from breakfast, so I have a cobbled-together lunch of leftover pasta, steamed broccoli (with butter!) and some Gouda slices. Most of my afternoon is split with preparing for program on Thursday (coordinating with Jennie, fixing my final checklists) and transcribing an interview for an article I have due. The hubs sends me an email asking me to choose from which tours we want for our upcoming trip to Bangkok. Waffling between the Grand Palace or River Cruise. As a treat, the hubs and I did a quick milk tea run just outside our condo’s compound. To wind down the day, I watched (and giggled over) the latest episode of We Got Married: Global Edition.

ON THE PROCESS | I imported all my iPhone photos and screenshots into Adobe Lightroom. I love this program! From there I did some super quick edits and figured out how to make a collage, yay! I didn’t want to spend time wrangling my photos into square templates. Also, these photos are really meant to stand together as part of one day. I’m not really sure I’ll be scrapping them. We’ll see.

OVERALL THOUGHTS | It was nice to get back into a daily documenting format. I didn’t feel pressured, my process was easy and straightforward, and it’s kinda cool seeing my photos in a collage like that. I may end up doing the same for our Bangkok trip. And even better, it’s made me more mindful of the little details that make up my life. It’s pretty easy to fall into the belief that because I’m home most of the time, my life is snoresville. It’s not as bombastic as other people’s, for sure, but I think I’m more conscious of gratitude for my little things. Also, if I *do* want more excitement, I gotta generate it on my own.

i’m not sure what i’m doing here.

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I found this graphic on Pinterest, but the source blog seems to have been deleted. But these words summarize how I currently feel about blogging. I started 2012 with grand plans of regularly doing this, and ended up abandoning my blog for a year. A lot has happened to me in 2012 that has been recorded in various social media and my Oh Life account, so it’s not like I lost my history. But weirdly enough, I kind of missed this space. I re-read some old posts and made myself laugh. And I was utterly fascinated at how differently I think now compared to even just two years ago.

But what does this mean? I do miss blogging–and I hesitate to say I miss writing, because I’ve been doing a buttload of it for work and in many ways, I’m tired of it. But I miss the sharing aspect of blogging, even if all I did was share to myself. Also, right now I feel myself still in the midst of struggle and change and a whole gamut of yuck. But I also want to push past it and I keep thinking that blogging or sharing will help me do that. Last year, by not blogging, I feel like I isolated myself and so I feel very cut off, despite social media (or maybe because of it?!). It’s way too easy to only show the glossy and pretty on Facebook or Instagram. And I will confess that at times I quailed against posting more raw, honest things for fear of the immediate judgement I would likely get from my contacts. I don’t mean those who love me no matter what–I know who those people are. It’s more the rest that I am afraid of.

Anyway, in trying to go for the bottom line, I will say this: I’ve been reading the amazing book Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, after listening to the most amazing episode of The Digishow. I’m not through yet, but here’s the thing: this book speaks to me. It really speaks to me. I think I’ve highlighted 80% of what I’ve read so far. I’m trying to think of any other book where I’ve felt the author just pried open my brain and is now reading straight from it. And I’ve decided to take certain steps to bring me inside “the arena,” so to speak. Blogging is one thing. It’s a big thing. I’ve never gotten negative comments. Nor has anyone attacked me. But I fear it, so I am very careful with my words. I try to please everyone. I disclaim almost everything I say. I’m tired of it.

Soooo…for the moment, this blog will be an exercise in daring greatly. It will be me baring some thoughts and sharing them for the sake of experiencing myself as being vulnerable and open. Other than that, I’m not entirely sure where to go. I know there are a few people subscribed to this blog, so I’ll just say–thank you! But I may end up writing a whole lot of stuff you may not be able to relate with, just to give you fair warning. But if this is the last post of mine you read, please–go read the book. You will gain a whole lot and lose nothing from reading it (and no,  I’m not affiliated with the author or her publishers).

sweet shoppe tutorials

Some time last year, I became part of the Tutorial blog team over at the Sweet Shoppe. It’s been a learning experience for myself as much as the community–figuring out how to teach something is a different skill set in itself. Still, I’m happy my little knowledge gets to help people. I figure I’d link to all my tutorials in this post, also as a way to organize.

Getting Started: Common Mistakes of New Scrappers
Where I outline some of the more common pitfalls that happen to newbie scrappers

Smearing Paint Over Layers
Want the look of a paint stroke or splatter across layers on your page? Check this out!

Blending Background Papers
Some of my favorite ways to blend scrapping papers!

Art Journal: Shapes on Paint
A simple way to “stamp” shapes unto several paint layers

Art Journal: Playing With Text
Easy-peasy ways to liven up the journaling on an art journal page

Scrap Like A SugarBabe: Alexis Aragona
A few tips on how I scrap non-theme layouts with the themiest of kits

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