Project Real Life

Hello my friends and fellow crafters!!

Well, life has caught me up and I haven't posted nearly as many Project Life weeks or layouts as I had planned to.  Eid holidays are just around the corner which means half term break,  and with some luck, I will get back on track with Project Lift Posts.  At least I am not behind with Project Life.  In fact, I have started Project Real Life with Becky Higgins over at Big Picture Classes.  Becky is offering a nice little freebee for project life on her blog.  Click HERE for the freebee and while you are there, read over some articles in her blog.

We are currently in week 3 of 12 of Project Real Life.  I am totally blown away by the content of the workshops so far!! This is what Big Picture Classes have to  say about the workshop:

Project Real Life

"Cultivate a good life and record it." Becky Higgins

This idea is at the heart of everything Becky Higgins does with her blog, her products and in her real life. Come and join her for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some time with her during the last quarter of 2012. As Becky goes about preparing for the holidays, organizing around her home and documenting her family's story along the way, she'll be sharing ideas to inspire you, tips to motivate you, and real-life suggestions on how to cultivate the life you want.

Whether you're a long-time Project Lifer or you're just now hearing about Project Life, you will love learning about the guilt-free philosophy behind this system of memory-keeping. While Becky will give you plenty to think about and do during the 12 weeks of this workshop, she has no intentions of overwhelming you. This is based on her belief that that there isn't a person that exists who really "does it all" — and this should be the last thing that we expect from ourselves.

If registrations are still being accepted and you are looking for something to knock your life socks off during the last 12 weeks of 2012, do yourself a favor and sign up :D:D


Thanks so much for stopping by.  Please come back soon.  I will be doing a sneak peek on a layout tutorial video I have done for Pretty Paper Studio, and online scrapbook store.

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT - "Cuddles"

I snapped this photo of my kids using my iPhone one morning while they were lying in my bed with me, getting cuddles.  I love that they are cuddling in the photo.  They really do love each other, which makes my hear warm :D

I masked the craft paper using Mister Huey's hexagon mask and Adirondack Colour Wash in Butterscotch. I layered over some scraps of paper, punch outs and various other embellishments found in my stash.  I also added a little Washi Tape.  This is my go to item at the moment.  I don't know how I lived without it!!!

This is one of my favorite layouts I have done in a while.  My heart felt happy when I finished this layout, which to me is the ultimate when scrapping :D

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!

Jo

PROJECT LIFE - "Week 12"

Welcome back to Project Life Tuesday.

Week 12 was Über exciting for us...It was the week school started, and we managed a quick 2 night getaway to Fujairah.  We had so many memories from the 2 nights away I decided to add a page protector dedicated to the mini vacation.  The 29th of August was also an eventful day, so I added a portion of a 4x4 page insert to hold all the pictures.

NOTE:  Picture heavy post

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Happy Day!!!  Stash from Pretty Paper Studios and a little afternoon nap with our dog, Zinga

We went to watch The Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX theatre at the Meydan hotel.It was a fantastic experience!!  I added 3 photos from the movie experience to the back of the 4x4 page insert added to hold the overflow pictures from earlier that day.  I got a lovely photo of the children cuddling in our bed, and one with daddy too.  I also decided to get my hair cut short.

Getting ready for the new school year to start.  I love new school shoes :D

Part of our mini vacation was to give the boys a chance to go SCUBA diving.  Matthew struggles to find wetsuits small enough for him from the dive centers, so we went and got him his own.  Amy needs a laptop for school in Year 3, so we got her one while we were out getting other supplies.  I added to our big purchase day by stocking up on 2 jumbo packs of Canon Selphy paper and cartridges.

Packing scrapping supplies for our mini vacation...Trying to keep it simple AND "kind of smores" made with marshmallow puff :D

For our 1 hour 45 min road trip, I made some hotdogs to go..Huge hit.  Matthew and Colin went diving as we arrived at the hotel.

Day 2 involved more diving for the boys and a lazy pool day for the girls.

MINI VACATION INSERT:

This is the front and back of the insert I added to this week to document our little holiday.

I got really snap happy with using the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone....The change in scenery between Dubai and Fujairah is so lovely

The first picture is of one of the roundabouts on the way to Al Aqah Beach in Fujairah.

We went with the boys to their dive brief for the first dive of the day.  I loved the fact that I could capture a little bit of what they were doing during the day too.  I got a photo of the dive area map as well as a picture of my two guys walking down the beach to the boat...

It was a fun filled week with school starting the day after we got back from our mini vacation....Hard to believe the kids are getting so big....

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!

Jo

SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT - "Cousins"

A family wedding earlier this year has supplied me with many awesome pictures to scrap.  I really love this one of the cousins together.  Since moving to Dubai, we don't see them much any more.  When the four of them get together, it is like they haven't spent a day apart, even when sometimes there is over a year between visits!!!

I kept this layout fairly simple, sticking to similar colors, except for the title which I really wanted to stand out.

I used DCWV paper from the Mariposa Paper pack, a couple strips of Washi Tape, cutout of some printed paper and a sentiment from the Kaiser Kraft Hummingbird 6x6 paper pack.  For the title, I punched tags using paper from the same Kaiser Kraft pack, I added some ribbon trim and Amy Tangerine Goodness Thickers for the lettering.  To add accent to the photo which I had printed with white boarders, I used a photo marker to free draw the frame lines.

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!

Jo

PROJECT LIFE - "Week 11"

Welcome back to Project Life Tuesday...back on track again thank goodness!!!




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I have been drooling after Pulled Pork Sliders for so, so, so long.  I finally decided to put a slow pork roast in the oven and enjoy these beauties for lunch :D

This was a fun night...QUIZ night.  I have never been to a quiz night before and it was such a laugh!!!

Need I say more???  Mmmmm, Starbucks!

She is just so photogenic!!!  My little princess.

Today was an IKEA day.  I succumbed to this awesome rug for my kitchen.  My favorite colors at the moment!!! 

Urgh!!  I could write an essay about me and the dentist!!!  I won't bore you with the details, but I found myself at the dentist yet AGAIN for a continuous problem with one of my teeth....At least Amy enjoyed playing with the awesome toys at the rooms.

I have recently fallen 2 weeks behind on Project Life, but due to my faithful record keeping, it was a doodle printing out the relevant pictures which have now been placed in their positions in the page protectors and all I need to do is bling them up a bit, add some journalling and I will be back on track.  I anticipate a 4 hr dedication to get the weeks up to date :D

On that note, don't get swamped with Project Life, find a record system that works for you and when all else fails, just start from today, and work forward instead of climbing the monster mountain of weeks of catching up!!!

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!

Jo

PROJECT LIFE - "Week 10"

Wow!!!  Have I had a busy couple of weeks!!!  Scrap Therapy is back on a Tuesday, so I am finally getting back together with my old scrapping friends after a year of no "therapy" at all...I have deduced that I NEED my therapy :p

I have had family staying with me for the last few weeks and hence, I have not had chance to post a Project Life Layout in a while...I am hoping to be back on track with Project Life Tuesday very soon...

Today is also a very special day in our household, it's my fabulous husbands birthday today...

I will be sharing PL Week 10 with you today.  It was still during school holidays and the time was filled with crafty days, dentist visits (urgh) and cooking :D


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We went to the Dubai Mall to have dinner at Scoozi, which is an Italian/Japanese restaurant.  Yes, and odd combination, but we can get pizza for the kids and sushi for us :D  

School holidays can get a bit indulgent for us.  We decided on crumpets for breakfast, and found ourselves out for dinner too....

My niece asked me to do a painting for her bedroom about 2 years ago...I thought it was time I fulfilled my promise to her :D.  I can never keep my hands clean when doing anything creative, whether it be scrapping, painting or doing make-up.....

Amy decided she wanted to decoupage an album cover...She diligently tore hundreds of bits of paper and meticulously started sticking them to the album cover.

Please come back tomorrow for Project Life Tuesday, where I will be sharing Week 11 :D

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!!!

PROJECT LIFE - "Week 9"

Welcome back to Project Life Tuesday

Week 9, 4th -11th August 2012, was filled with much excitement, as it snowed in my home country, South Africa.  It was apparently the first time in recored history that it snowed in all 9 Provinces on the same day.  Facebook was ABUZZ with comments and pictures of the snow from all over the country...


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Getting a dog was such a blessing for our family.  Matthew is just smitten with little Zinga :D

This was a picture that flew around Facebook on August the 7th.  It was of the lions in the Johannesburg Zoo, in the snow.  So stunning.

I dedicated a lot of time during the summer holidays to my Project Life album.  It was worth taking a photo of and documenting.

I decided to sign up for a class on Big Picture Classes.  It is the Amy Tangerine Creative Juices class.  It included several handouts with lots of ideas.  I really loved it and  made a mini book journal from one of the tutorials included in the class.  You can see my post on the mini book HERE.  I have recently used the mini book to record our 2 night getaway to Fujairah in the beginning of September.  I will be writing a post on the album soon.

Looking back on the summer Project Life pages, it appeared that a lot of my days were filled with food...a family friend has written a cook book, using recipes from his restaurant in Cape Town.  All the recipes are home food and totally delicious.  There are just a handful of recipes I have not tried as yet.  The ones I have done have been a huge hit in our home, with regular requests for one in particular, the Homemade Chicken Pie.  The restaurant is called Fraiche Ayers.  You can visit their website HERE.

Keep preserving your memories and Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT - Fearless

Up until about 2 months ago, my husband has been REALLY busy with work, and had not spent much time at home.  

Last October, he was on charter around the Middle East, and he had a night stop in Abu Dhabi, which is about an hour forty-five drive from where we live in Dubai.  We grabbed this opportunity, not only to get some time in with him, but also to have a little surprise mid-week break.

We got to the hotel on Yas Island (The home of the Grand Prix race track and of course the Ferrari World Theme Park), a few hours before he did, so we hung out at the pool.  I was doing my usual and being mama-razzi to the kids while they were having fun.

Shortly after that getaway, I started working and I didn't get an opportunity to scrap this photo of my son.  This was one of the first pages I scrapped when summer holidays started.

I kept it simple, and fairly color neutral because I really wanted the picture to stand out.  I used elements from printed paper from Paper Inklings (love their tween boy paper) and some bits and pieces from a Simple Stories 6x6" paper pad.

Happy Scrapping!!

Jo

PROJECT LIFE - "Week 8"

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday.  Today I would like to share Week 8.  It was an exciting week for us.  We got our first dog.  He is a rescue dog called Zinga and is a Chihuahua X Miniature Pinscher.

My husband and I have been married for 12 years, and have never really considered taking on a pet.  When we got married, both of us worked and didn't think it would be fair to get a dog and then leave it at home alone all day.  I stopped working when our first child was born, and then we had our hands full with a little on in the house.  Just as he got big enough for us to be able to share our love and attention, we added a little sister to the mix.

We then moved to Dubai, to a home which had no garden or outside area of any kind.  Two years ago we moved to a new home, with our own patch of grass, but felt that the time was not right to add to our family.

We are at a stage now where the children are old enough and responsible enough to help with taking care of our little added treasure and I am so glad we waited.  This little character is just right for us.  Small enough to think his garden is a farm, bouncy enough to be fun to play with, and loving and loyal enough to guard us while we sleep from his vantage point of the top of the stairs.....Yes, I am in love :D

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Summer holiday activity:  The kids made play dough, then proceeded to make me a FANTASTIC play dough dinner (Spaghetti & Meat Balls, Brownies and Waffle and Ice Cream and a special after dinner I Love You treat).  There is something special about a blue and purple dinner served on paper plates :D

Our little guy....He had his "manhood" taken as is mandatory by the Animal Rescue Centre and then had to wear this not so fashion forward lampshade...poor thing.

Fantastic scones and sushi at a friends house....yummy.

Our new family member moving in and sleeping on the pillow on my daughters bed.  (She somehow managed to sneak into my bed at some time during the night).

Found these little beauties through Pinterest.  I just couldn't resist using one of them as a title page for August.  Click HERE for a link to my Pinterest Printables Page.

Getting crafty with the kids during a super hot summer and dusting off the old bread machine, just for fun.

More crafty days and crumpets for lunch...

Finding a little "me" time and fiddling with my SMASH book.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Happy scrapping :D