May Stamp Give Away

Once a month, on the first day of the month, I post a couple of new or gently used stamps to give away. They usually relate to an upcoming holiday. If you want them, leave me a comment and let me know. But you have to be quick! I'll pick the winner in the next 24 hours. Both of these wonderful flower stamps are from Club Scrap. Let me know if you want the pair.
Edited to add: Congratulations to Alison on winning the stamps!

My Week in the Life Plan

I've been participating in a photography and scrapbooking project called "A Week in the Life." During this past week, I took lots of photographs each day to chronicle my life as it is right now. The next step in the project is to scrapbook the photographs.  I'm going to use the 6x6 handmade album above.
Last time I did WITL was in 2008, and I used an 8x8 album:

I had a two-page spread for each weekday with a Tim Holtz quote and circular date stamp.  The left page featured one 4x6 photo and journaling.  The right hand side featured a collage of four pictures. Here's a couple samples

I also had filler pages in between the days, which covered topics. As an example, here are pages on pets and mornings:

I was happy with how this worked, so I'm following a similar plan this year. I refuse to buy a new album (as I have several in my stash). The only 8x8's I have are pink and not appealing to me. So, I'm going with the 6x6 featured above.  Some of the pages have flaps inside, and I'll use these for the daily pages:

This will allow me to feature four photographs per day, as well as plenty of journaling.
There's also simple two page spreads (alternating with the flapped pages).

I'll use these for filler pages on certain topics (one for Paul, Henry, Clara certainly; probably one for the gym; one for pets and my walk to work). I took fewer pictures this year, so I think this album will be big enough.  I will order my pictures today or tomorrow and start on building the foundation to make it easy to put them in when they arrive.  I know from experience that keeping it simple and doing it quickly is the key to completing this project.  
If you've done WITL before or are doing it this year, I'd love to hear how you scrap your WITL photos.

WITL: Finally Friday and a Plan

I'm participating in a photography and scrapbooking project called "A Week in the Life." I've been chronicling this "typical week" in my life. I started last weekend, so this post (about Friday) is my last one.  
The day dawned bright and sunny on the coastside.

On Friday, the cleaners come and Paul and I go out to lunch.  The dog waits in the car because otherwise she barks non-stop at the cleaners:

I did a lot of laundry:

Henry's baseball practice ended early, and I took him "over the hill" to buy some baseball stirrups at Goetz Bros. and then to the mall because he wanted to buy a birthday present for his girlfriend (!). He bought a beautiful heart shaped necklace, which is being engraved with their initials (!). This all seems very serious. I'm a little scared (not really). We ate at Panda Express and then headed home for a quiet evening watching the Giants on TV.
Photographically, I decided to capture a few other bits and pieces of everyone's life.   Clara:

Paul:

Henry:

And that's it for my week!  Back tomorrow with some thoughts on how I will put this all together and a look back at what I did in 2008. Also, a quick reminder that on May 1, I'll be giving away some free stamps.

WITL Weds/Thurs: Hit Rewind and Run Like Mad

I'm participating in a photography/scrapbooking project called "A Week in the Life," which you can read more about here.  In my penultimate post, I'm chronicling a Wednesday which replays many of the events from the rest of the week and a Thursday which was busy, busy, busy.
A quiet Wednesday morning around the house:

I went to work for a meeting and then came back to watch Henry play baseball (I posted a video yesterday). Here's a few photographs from our home field (yes, those are cows on the hill, in the pasture behind our baseball diamond).

Afterwards, I went to a silent auction to raise money for the high schools' Grad Night. This week Henry is doing "star testing," (to assess whether the students are learning what the state wants them to), so he doesn't have much homework. 
On Thursday, I got up early to get some computer time in before heading to the gym (where I received a certificate for completing a full year at the gym - it noted that during that time I have lost 14 inches and improved my mile time by two minutes!). I was surprised to find that the weather had turned, and it was wet and damp:

Then off to work for a student consultation and faculty meeting:

Ran back home (it's about a 45 minute trip) to go take pictures of the middle school soccer team (I do this as a fundraiser for the athletic program).  Clara came along with me, and she finally let me take a picture of her (she's the one on the right)!

We came home, and I helped her with her homework. Then it was off to my book group meeting, where we ate and drank and discussed the book and our lives. We all hated "The Whipping Club," so it was a short discussion. Our next book is Stephen King's 11-23-63. I didn't take any pictures. I was too tired from my busy, busy day!

WITL: Video Interlude

I'm participating in a photography and scrapbooking project called Week in the Life, sponsored by Ali Edwards. On Wednesday, I went to my son's baseball game and took this video of one of his at-bat's (it's just over a minute long). I'll have a fuller WITL post for Wednesday and Thursday tomorrow, but I'm posting this as a bit of test for how to make and post videos (and also for my friends from the UK who don't see much baseball). Enjoy!

PPF: "Sing Your Song to the World"

I haven't participated in Paint Party Friday the last few weeks, and I've really missed it! I have felt really scattered artistically  lately, unable to focus and create anything. So, I decided to return to one of my small scale projects - my sampler of Prayer Flags. Once the weather turns warm, I'm going to have a nice selection of designs to choose from.  Here's my latest creation.  If you want to see some of my other prayer flag samples, click on the prayer flag label below. If you want to see other painterly goodness, check out this link for a list of other Paint Party Participants.
I found that starting with a simple project has helped get me back to my art desk. What do you do when you feel stuck?

WITL: Mundane Monday and Two-Step Tuesday

I'm working on a photography/scrapbooking project called "A Week in the Life," documenting, well, a typical week in my life. For more details, see Ali Edwards' post here.
My Monday was pretty mundane. I spend a lot of time letting this little one in and out (I think she needs a trip to the groomers again soon):

Paul and I took Henry's car in to get his sub-woofers fixed (he got these for Christmas and they've never quite worked right) and then grabbed lunch at an Indian food place nearby:

Back home, I puttered at my art desk and then fell asleep watching the S.F. Giants play a baseball double-header. Henry came home in time to meet with his SAT tutor.

And that was about it. Clara went to swimming, but Paul took her, so I've got no pictures from it (might have to work on that).
Tuesday was a bit more interesting.  I started off the day at the gym.  We did "assessments" (ran a mile for time and held a plank for as long as we could). I was slower and weaker than usual, but I stuck with it.

Then it was off to work. You can see the photographs about that part of my day in yesterday's post by clicking here.  Drove over to San Bruno to watch Henry play baseball:

The boys lost, but a group of us went to a great Mexican Restaurant afterwards (Don Pico). Spending time with the parents is a highlight of the baseball season for me:

A few notes and observations on this project:
1. I'm taking most of my pictures with my a 50 mm fixed lens and my old camera (Nikon D50) because the 50mm is so small and compact and has such nice resolution, but it won't autofocus on my new camera (D5100), and post-processing is much easier with the old camera software so far. Given the volume of photos for this project, I decided to go old school. But it makes me acutely aware that I need to put some time into mastering my new camera and figure out a good post processing flow.
2. This year's project is much more about me and much less about the kids than last time I did it (four years ago; 9/26-10/02/08). I guess that's representative of my life as well.
3. I spend a lot of time with Henry and not so much with Clara - again representative of my life and the state of family relationships at this time.
4. I spend a lot of time with a certain local group of friends - if you look closely, you'll see the same group at the gym and at the baseball field. I'll be back at the baseball field with them again this week and at our book group meeting, as well as an auction fundraiser. We joke that the Coast is actually like a really big house, and we all live together. It definitely feels that way this week.  I consider it a blessing.
For those doing A Week in the Life, what have you started to realize about your life or the project so far?