Project Life Knock-off

I am SUPER excited to share this with you. As I gutted my house of junk last month, I was able to put all my finished scrapbooks in one place. Looking through them, I got nostalgic and realized that I really miss scrapbooking! The kids absolutely love looking through the books, I miss the fellowship of scrapping with friends and I just miss the creative process in general. I also really don't like having my photos only on the computer. When I gave up scrapbooking as a hobby several months ago, it was because the stuff and the time and feelings of being behind at something that was supposed to be just a hobby, were becoming overwhelming.

But, I missed it. So, I started brainstorming ways to get back into it with less stuff and less guilt. (I did get rid of a LOT of the stuff, keeping only paper and stamps and tools. All the stuff I have left has a place and gets used by the kids and me or my co op class often).

After searching for ideas online, I was reminded of the Becky Higgins Project Life line of products and got really excited. But, I wasn't going to pay her prices (it's a fast $90, just to get started if you buy those specific albums, inserts and journaling cards!)

Instead, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought an album and photo inserts (all half off). I think this album is just the cutest:

I decided to just start with last year and not go too far back. Organizing pages by month rather than giving each event or group of photos its own page with a complicated layout was very liberating for me! I got some photos printed and cut up a paper "stack" I already had into 4x6 pieces to make it easier to get started. Here's what I did yesterday:

I started with April because that's the month I had all the photos for. I have since began uploading other months to Snapfish to place a big order and have all the photos ready to go.

What I love about this photo album scrapbook idea is that the creative process can still happen--I can decorate (or not) to my heart's content! I can add captions and journaling if I want to and even though I've only done two pages, my kids are already loving looking at those pic from Nebraska last year! I still need to do the Easter photos before April is done, but other months only have a few pictures.

I'm thrilled that this is fun for me again. If you're curious about Project Life, you can order those products on Amazon--the photo inserts aren't too expensive and come in more layouts, but I wanted to keep it simple for now and use what I could get cheaper at Hobby Lobby. There is a lot of inspiration for this concept on Pinterest too! Check it out here :)

As an added bonus, my girls are getting into scrapbooking too, so this can easily become something we do together! Scrapbooking at home when my kids were little was next to impossible, so this is exciting for me :)

real life snippets

Can you believe that it is snowing? Again? Spring is still on the agenda this year, right? Right?? I know that Colorado needs the moisture, but we are a little stir crazy this week. Today we loaded up and went to Target for new Legos, a new movie and some pizza for dinner. Spirits were much improved after that :)

I was thinking yesterday that I haven't blogged in awhile and that I have some lovely Summer sewing to show to you, but alas, I do not want to take pictures of my lovely Summer sewing in the lovely Winter snowstorm that is happening outside right now and I don't really have any other pictures to blog. To remedy that, I took some pictures :) I did commit to taking more photos of our everyday life here, after all, something I'm glad I've been keeping up with since starting my project life knockoff venture (see more pages below!)

So, here you have it, what we do when it's snowing in Springtime.

 The world needs more games that kids can play alone, in my opinion. This is a fun one.

 Rapunzel makes an appearance!

 Our church library had a giveaway table last week and I scored this gem along with some other old books. Corrie Ten Boom's story sure does put my own hardships in perspective. I'd like to reread The Hiding Place soon.

Kelby's two favorite things: Ninja Turtles and Legos. He builds these little sets all by himself! And then he rebuilds them over and over. Nothing keeps him busy like new Legos. Smart guy ... or sly Mommy ;)

My girls right now are REALLY into Lego Friends. As in, they save their allowance for new sets, read the books and chapter books and draw stories about their Lego Friends. They are so much fun, kudos to Lego for continuing make the most awesome toy ever!

Last week, I got busy on February 2012 in my scrapbook!

Yep, there's a toilet in my album. And why shouldn't there be? It was a part of our life, after all. I love this scrapbooking method, I never would have put a toilet in my book with my old method of scrapbooking! Ha!

Like I said, I have some awesome Summer sewing to share! Hopefully soon, but one never can tell with these Colorado weathermen ;)

Natalie sews

Last week I ordered this book for my girls:

 I've always given them free reign with their sewing machine and the box of up-for-grabs fabrics, but they are wanting to make more sophisticated things, from patterns and such. I try to make time at least weekly to sew with them, but I wanted them to have a little freedom to follow directions and make things without me. This book is great for that! There are color coded projects, according to how much help they might need. I helped Natalie make the first of these felt flowers and then she was off. She moved on to another project from the book and made it with no help at all!

 She made a headband out of this one, sorry the pic isn't better.

She taught Layla how to make these too and now both my girls are skilled with a glue gun. I think it's revolutionized their crafting, haha!

I haven't sewn a ton the last few weeks, I've been working on other things and enjoying homeschooling. I did make Casey another pillow case yesterday. He picked this fabric himself at the quilt store a couple weekends ago. He doesn't ask for much, so when he wants me to sew something for him, I try to oblige :)

I've been working on a photo book for allllll my 2013 photos. I finished my Project Life scrapbook for 2012. But, I've decided that while it's something I really do enjoy, I don't make time for scrapbooking. It requires a lot of gear, which costs a lot of money and takes up a lot of space and I am really wanting to pare down our belongings even more than we already have. Clutter affects my mental state so much. Really, I just want the photos off my computer and in my hands. And Shutterfly photo albums fit the bill for that. Plus, they take up a lot less shelf space than my scrapbooks, which are all on a closet shelf right now!

I've also been getting friendly with my camera again. I realized I haven't been taking many photos these last few months, other than with my phone (which still count, especially since Shutterfly can upload right from your Instagram account!) Making the photo album inspired me to pick my big camera up again for the sake of memories! Someone said some kinda mean things about my photo skills awhile back and it really discouraged me more than I was willing to admit. Made me feel mediocre. But, that's dumb and I need to forget it and do it because I think it's fun and not because there's some educational/fancy gear criteria for calling yourself a photographer! Ha!

So, I think I should be compensated for my endorsements today, from Shutterfly and that sewing book, don't you?? ;)

Project Life Knockoff: January

I got the rest of my photos organized from 2012 and got going on more of my scrapbook! If you missed my first post about this, my new and simplified way of scrapbooking, you can read that here. I finished January on Monday night and started working on February last night. It's so relaxing and fun and the kids really love seeing what I've done. January didn't have very many pictures so it's only one spread. Other months have a TON. October, for example. Why do I have soooo many photos from October??

Anyway, here it is :)

By the way, Michael's now sells these photo inserts in a couple different layouts, which I used both of here! I was excited to have more layout options and they were inexpensive too, especially with a coupon :)

It's crazy how much kids grow up in just a year, right?? Pulling older photos out always makes me teary-eyed about how fast the time goes. Someone on the radio recently asked the question, "Is there anything in your life now that you're in danger of regretting later?" It inspired me to really focus in on the discipleship opportunities I have with my kids. Being a homeschooler, I have much opportunity for that and I have been praying daily that I will never let an opportunity slip by to point my kids to the Gospel. Because the years are so fast and I do not want to regret letting those teachable moments slip by because I'm tired, lazy or just kidded out. Ya know?

What about you?

More Project Life (knock-off)

I've been a busy bee! I organized all my scrapbook stuff and got busy last week. I really want to finish 2012 before we move from here at the very end of March and seeing as I've blown through almost three months of photos over the last week, I think it can be done. Ideally, I'd like to work only one year behind. I like to order the entire year's worth of photos in January. So I'm about to order all of 2013 and get started on scrapbooking them once we get settled at our next duty station.

Here's what I've done in the last week! (Taking pictures of pictures never gives you the best quality, but it'll do.

I love that I can insert a smaller photo page in wherever I want, like I did below! This system is so versatile and keeps the photos the main event. I love it. 

Here's the other side of that smaller page:

I've done half the year! Hooray for progress! Honestly, I considered just going with a Shutterfly photo book for 2013. But, I just have so much fun doing this. I really enjoy the process and the kids really love looking at it. Sometimes Natalie sits and makes pages for her book with me too, which is always sweet. I pass along the photos I don't use to her. I hope my girls and I have many years of scrapbooking together ahead of us! 

just for fun

Life is carrying on as usual at our house. We had a minor bug last week and since we weren't feeling very well, things were a bit relaxed--in a good way. I forgot to show you these pot holders I made for my friend Becky's birthday. She had seen the ones I posted earlier last month and requested some brown, turquoise and lime green ones. I was happy to oblige :) Pot holders are such great gifts--they are fast and fun and use up scraps. Although, after I made two of these blocks, I was imagining how fabulous an entire quilt of these would be. I mean, come on, she's on a VESPA! ;) Awesome.


I've been plugging away at some Groovy Girl clothes for Natalie for her birthday (pictures to come) but I need to buy some tulle scraps for the tutu so I sort of came to a stand still. SO, I used the time to make this little crochet hook cozy! I checked out Sew Darn Cute from the library, just for this project and I finally got around to it. I love it, it will make crochet even more fun...cause everything's more fun when it's cute, right??


It fold up into a little wallet. This project was fast, it only took about an hour from start to finish. There are some other great projects in the book too, just FIY :)


Yesterday I took this picture of Casey and Natalie. I think it's so sweet. He's really good about letting the kids in on whatever he's doing, even if they waller him. (I don't think that's actually a word, but you know what it means, right?)


Then, since I'm determined to get on the other side of the camera more this year, I asked Casey to grab the camera and get a shot of Kelby's cuddliness :) He's my most affectionate baby by far.


I know this post is getting long, sorry :) but I want to share this pic of my friend Kellye and I. We met while living in Georgia, just before our husbands were deployed to Iraq. She was in Colorado for the weekend and we were able to spend a day together for the first time in more than five years! It was so much fun, we did some reminiscing and I've been thinking a lot about our Georgia days. Isn't it funny how you can think you want life to change so badly, but when it does, you immediately miss the way things were?? That's the way it was for me when we left there. I missed it almost immediately, in so many ways. All this to say, reflecting on that has convicted me to try and truly live where I'm at and embrace my situation, whatever it may be (which, when I'm honest with myself, has always been pretty good.) Thanks for the awesome Saturday, Kellye, I hope it happens again sometime :)

homeschool tidbits

Homeschooling is an epicenter for the sin of comparison. Nothing in my life has so often caused me to sinfully compare myself to others like homeschooling has. Even when I feel like things are going along great, I will open up a blog post on what someone else's third grader is doing or see someone else's awesome project of some sort or other and immediately feel my spirits sink. Am I doing enough? Are my kids behind? Should we plan a more traditional way of doing things? Should I be using a more intense curriculum?

This school year, with three grade levels, one child with a very unique learning style, one very advanced child and one child who just likes to make noise and be busy and EAT, and, oh yeah, a cross-country move, there has been nothing left to do but to just give the whole thing to Jesus. Daily. Hourly. Every moment, actually. Because even though the academics are important, Jesus values discipleship even more. And when I feel like homeschooling is a huge disruption in my life, I know that it's my priorities that are out of whack because these children are my ministry and it's the other things (what I'd rather be doing) that are the disruption! So I pray for a change of heart and He is always faithful to give it.

My kids are learning. And we are unconventional in the way we do things. It's ok! It can be hard to gauge progress when you do things this way, but progress is happening nonetheless.

A couple weeks ago, I ordered Volume 2 of Five in a Row. Things were not going well and Volume 1 had worked so well for us last year, that I felt like this would give me some direction because I was, ummm, floundering. It's been nice and we have finally eased back into a successful school week. The ideas in these books are simple and it's very, very, very inexpensive.

Pinterest is a great way to supplement the lessons and get even more ideas and usually some free printables.

But I have released myself from doing things too methodically ;) Layla is really into science. So I get kids science books at the library and often she peruses them during her free time and picks a simple experiment to do. Last week she made a little cloud in a baggie. She followed the directions and we taped it to her window. It was cool!

I also signed Kelby up for ABCmouse.com. There is a free trial and I knew it would help keep him busy occassionally, which would solve a huge portion of the problems I was having! He doesn't like to do it everyday, but he also has some workbooks that he likes, he likes to make file folder books sometimes and he builds Lego sets some days with us at the table. And I try to read books to him everyday. I loosened up my expectations of him because he is not a sit-down-do-this-everyday type of guy.

I have tried to incorporate more art and more science into our weeks because those are the things each my girls really love.

I do Body Math with just Layla each day (her choice of all my I love math books) and last week she was also really into a library book on the human body so when I saw this cute idea on Pinterest, I knew we had to try it. We had some glow in the dark paint leftover from something else, so we added that to ours. And googely eyes, obviously ;)It was super fun trying them out in the bathroom!!

This week we studied Owl Moon and on Monday we discussed rules. We decided to make a poster of some house rules, but I wanted them to be straight from Scripture, so we took a few from Exodus 20, two from Ephesians 4:32 and one from Matthew 5:9. The girls took turns writing after I read each verse and then they decorated it. It's now hanging in our dining room and it's been a wonderful reminder that God has told us how to make our home a peaceful one. The "make peace" rule has gotten a lot of discussion especially!

Today we made some resist paintings with oil pastels and watercolors, to go with our Owl Moon theme.
We sprinkled salt on afterward and now that they're dry, they're really cool and snowy!

The girls are also working on homemade books about an animal of their choice. I was wanting Natalie to learn some simple research and report writing skills and they are really having fun with it!

BUT, my biggest epiphany happened last Tuesday, when nothing was going well, the kids had attitudes and were being ridiculous and I melted down in my room :) We all do that, right?? No sugar coating it, homeschooling is hard and not always fun.

Anyway, Natalie has always been extremely resistant to math. Of any kind. I have never found any bookwork that she either liked or that she actually learned from. But, the problem is not that she's not good at it. When I had her keep score during a game we played recently, I taught her to add two digit numbers, carry the one, etc... and she got it just fine and had fun learning it. So I went to her room and handed her a paper and started making up a story. "A ballerina lost her tutu. She had to go searching for it and opened a closet that had 32 tutus in it..." The story went on from there and we added two and three digit numbers for awhile. Then she started making up the stories: "A fashionista went to the mall and had one hundred dollars to spend..." Then we moved onto subtraction. The next day, she was begging to do more story math!!!! My plan is to order this math book, Beast Academy when she's ready. I think it is right up her alley and absolutely perfect for her, but we had to get some bigger basics down first. A variation of this story math idea came from this book, which I highly recommend.

I also got this book from our library last week and it's pretty great too. Today we played a game out of it with Uno cards and learned about place value to the thousands.

Another gem I stumbled onto at the library is Everyday Graces.

It's a fat book of stories, poems or parts of stories (classics, no twadle ;) that teach kids manners and values. It's really lovely. I have the girls grab a coloring book while I read to them and then we talk about it. I'll be adding both these books to my Amazon wish list.

We've also been opening each school day with Bible time, using The Big Book of Questions and Answers . It answers theological questions, but is easy for the kids to understand and see for themselves through the Scriptures. When we finish this one, I'd like to try Long Story Short, which I've read great things about.

If you've made it his far (this was a loooooong post), you will enjoy this funny story before I sign off. One of the neighbor girls, age 8 (the neighbor kids switch back and forth from being fascinated by the homeschool thing and thinking we are complete weirdos) told me the other day that I should at least let my kids go to high school to they can be taught things and they can go to college. And I said that they can learn and be smart and go to college even being homeschooled in high school. And she said, "Well, you're kids aren't smart, though. I told them I take pills and they didn't know what that meant. They don't even know what pills are!" I told her they don't take pills, so why would they know?? And then she just once again decided we are weird and ran off to play. Ha! Are meds just the norm for children these days?? Funny story, but very telling also.

art

We sat down for a little art project together the other day.  We do this pretty often, but the results are not always very blog-worthy :)  However, I recently discovered a wonderful blog called Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons for Kids and there are sooooo many fun projects on there for all ages.  We got to work on the turtle drawing and here's what we came up with:
Here's Natalie's...

And Layla's...

Here's mine...

And here's what Kelby was doing because I wouldn't let him whack at the chandelier with the fly swatter :)

Speaking of art, I came across a book in the art section of Barnes and Noble this week called Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life.  I started flipping through it and really like his artwork.  I think this would make a great coffee table book for our new house, don't you?  Can you help me convince Casey that this is a good idea????

two sewn things and blogging pressures.

I lost my sewing mojo for a few weeks! And maybe my blogging mojo a bit too, if I'm being honest. I think the blogging world has changed drastically over the past year or two and I'm not gonna lie, I don't love what it's become. I open my feed on Bloglovin' and out of all the sewing blogs I follow, probably half of them are doing the same thing all the time--reviewing the same $25 indie pattern that they incidentally received for free, participating in a blog tour from another indie pattern company, sewing up the such-and-such dress for such-and-such blogger's link-up or the such-and-such sewing network (ahem, Vogue), or whatever. Blah. No offense ... I think it's boring. Even things like Project Sewn, which could be so fun, choose the same bloggers that get chosen for everything else. Why is that? I don't get it. Can we see some skills and ideas from lesser known sewists for a change ?? Do the prettiest blogs always have to win or can those who don't own their domain names join in the fun too? (I am not talking about wanting to be invited myself, I do not sew well under pressure, ha!)

I miss the sewing bloggers that sew from the big four pattern companies that we can all afford, post their free amateur tutorials for us all to enjoy and that include snippets of their real lives too. Those are the blogs I'm having a hard time finding! Are we getting fewer and farther between or am I just not looking in the right places? Are the bloggers with more modest followings and few comments per post getting discouraged because they don't have the time or money or desire to keep up with the changing blogiverse? (I made that word up ;)

At any rate, I'd like some ideas for blogs to follow that fit these criteria! Leave your favorite, but relatively unknown family life or crafting or sewing blogs in the comments so I can check them out!

Moving on :)

I have two things to show you. The pictures are not stellar. I haven't found my favorite photo spot at my new house yet. I miss my brick wall from two houses ago! That spot was so perfect.

The first is a dress I made for July 4th that I really love. I had a gingham from the thrift store that I decided to make a sun dress out of:

 I used the bodice from the Cynthia Rowley pattern, Simplicity 1688, but wanted a more casual skirt so the skirt is Simplicity 2588, a tried and true pattern for me. I like that it's pleated instead of gathered, which gives it a more mature, less sweet look. And I moved the zipper from the side to the center back.

I accidentally made my straps too short! So I got creative and made fabric loops and sewed buttons on to extend them in the back. I used a pop of green thread to sew the buttons on and that is now my favorite part of the dress! A happy accident.

Before that, though, I was making some old things new and made New Look 6285 from the skirt part of an Ann Taylor outlet dress that didn't look very good on me.

 I actually think these photos look alright, maybe I've found my new spot after all! This is my lanai off our master bedroom. You should see the view at sunset!

I bought this pattern because I love how you can mix and match snippets of fabrics, like with this lace and this knit. I wouldn't have had enough fabric for the whole top without the lace inset so this pattern was perfect. It's definitely a looser fit than on the pattern envelope, though, so keep that in mind if you make it. I prefer a loose top in this climate!

In other news, I have found my new fabric store!!!! It is so cool. It's literally an open warehouse in an alley, piled from floor to ceiling with awesome fabrics. If you follow me on Instagram (my user name is nikkischreiner), then you may have seen my posts about that and about the humpback whale print I am making a button down shirt out of! I had to order buttons so I'm waiting on those, but I cannot wait to show you that because it is awesoooome!!!

Cheers! And don't forget to link me to your fave blogs! Or YOUR blog, for that matter! Or your Instagram page, I really love Instagram, I'd love to follow more sewers and blog buddies :)