December Daily 2014

This year I started on an endeavor to document our daily lives.  While I'm VERY grossly behind, I started scrapbooking in January using the pocket scrapbooking system.  If you're not familiar with this, you can take a look at BeckyHiggins.com to learn more.  You can embellish your pages if you want, but pocket scrapbooking is super easy in that all you need to do is drop in your journal cards and photos and you're done.

Anyway, I was introduced to the December Daily project about a month ago.  December Daily was created by Ali Edwards to document 1 story each day in December.  So, I thought, why not give it a go this year??

So I did some research (like I always do) and decided that in order to be successful at this I was going to need an all inclusive kit.  Otherwise, I would probably just buy a whole bunch of random Christmas paper crafting supplies and then never do anything with it.

I decided to go with 2 kits and use pieces from both of them for this years try at my first December Daily.

My first kit comes from Take Ten Kits by The Studio 29 Designs.  I subscribe to this kit every month and, in October, she offered a "Days of December" kit.  There was a small kit available at $10 and a larger kit available at $25.  Of course I had to get both of them!  As of the date of this post, the $25 kit is still available.

It is hard to see in the picture, but the kit comes with washi tape, sequins, flair buttons, chipboard designs, acrylic words, a stamp set, pocket cards, and a 6x6 paper pad.

To be honest, I was just going to use what I received from Take Ten Kits... until I saw the video from the Ali Edwards kit.  I hadn't decided on what kind of an album to use and her kit came with all sorts of awesome supplies AND an album.  You can still order a kit from Ali Edwards.  They are currently offering free shipping in November to US recipients and double the paper (while supplies last).

The kit from Ali Edwards comes with a stamp set, paper, chipboard sets, large chipboard gold alphas, plastic shapes, wood veneer numbers, puffy stickers, small alpha stickers, and more!

Unfortunately, due to all the delays on the west coast with the dock workers and such, the album hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here next week.

Next weekend, when I sit down to put together my foundation pages, I'll have more pictures of the individual pieces.  Everything is so neatly packaged up that I didn't want to take things out yet until I figure out how I'm going to organize them for easy access next month.

I can't wait to get into this project and share our Days of December with you!

~AKO

Another Dimension

That is where it feels like I've been for the past 8 months... another dimension.  I've been in a bit of a funk over the summer and had to do some self help and soul searching on how to improve my situation and move forward.  It was nothing life threatening, just a bit mind and body threatening (if that is even a valid statement!).

I'm now ready to move forward and get back out there!  I have quite a few projects lined up that are going to start in the next 2 - 3 weeks that I'm excited to share with you.  Although, I'm sure I've lost a few readers with the unplanned hiatus, but I guess that goes with essentially starting over.  1 of those projects is starting on Monday and I'm really excited to put it out there, even if no one but me reads it :)

I recently went through Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Push, which is a 30 day program to help you focus on the goals that are most important to you and also help you to complete the daily tasks that need to be completed.  It is a free program and I highly recommend it.  The program really helped me to put into perspective what was really important to me and what I needed to prioritize to move toward my goals.

So, I promise I am back.

I can't promise there won't be a refocus of topics.

I can't promise that I won't overhaul this blog.

I can't promise there won't be whining... or soul searching.

What I can promise is that I'm back!

~AKO

This is Happening!

I bought this years ago on a clearance rack and just dug it out of our boxes of DVDs that we haven't unpacked yet.

I've been starting the wheels turning on a couple things that I'll be reporting back on real soon :)

~AKO

Wordless Wednesday: Deployment Preparation

~AKO

Super Bowl Boulevard

In case you haven't heard, the Super Bowl is at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey tomorrow.  That's right folks!  It is in NEW JERSEY!  NOT in NEW YORK!

To celebrate, NYC turned Broadway between 32nd and 47th streets into what they called "Super Bowl Boulevard".  In my never-ending quest for family fun activities as we near Freddy's deployment, I decided it would be fun to head into the city to take a look.  I figured it would also be a once in a lifetime experience as well.

As soon as we got there, I very quickly remembered why I hate even the thought of taking a step into Times Square.  There were about a hundred gazillion people crammed into a 15 block area.  It didn't take us long to see what we had to see and then get the heck out of there!

We thought about taking Marshall on the toboggan ride... until we saw the line!  That is only part of the line that you see going up the left hand side.  So we just snapped a picture and moved on.

They also had the Vince Lombardi trophy on display so we headed over to see if we could get some pictures of it.  Until we heard that it was a 3 hour wait to get inside the building!  SO I snapped a picture from outside and called it a day...  This was the best I could do with the glare from the other buildings on the glass.

And last, but not least, we got a picture in front of the numbers that were set up around 46th street...

There were a lot more Bronco fans then Seahawk fans walking around but the Seahawk fans were louder :)  As crazy as the crowd was, and the fact that I got into a yelling match with the obnoxious security guy from H&M, it was a pretty fun day and probably something we won't see again for a long time.

~AKO