Books, Babies and Becky Higgins

Deanna inspired me with this post.

My original 2012 reading goal was 60 books. I reached that goal sometime in November and D challenged me to go for 70.

Of course I'm never one to back down from a challenge so I changed my little widget on Goodreads (if you're not on Goodreads and you read books, please do so - it's such fun!) and started reading the next 10.

Well, I made it!

At about 10 am on New Year's Eve, I finished number 70 :) Such fun!

Reading goals really work for me because I have trouble relaxing. So if I "have" to read, it's the one way to make me stop working, organising, doing and just being.

Some screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

this right here is how I know I'm a nerd :) I love all the stats

My absolute favourite books from 2012 were What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty, and another Moriarty, Sinead Moriarty's books. ALL of them. Sinead is Irish (no kidding!) and I love the humour interspersed with seriousness. Get the ones I've read - they are all good. By the way, I don't give 5s so if a book gets 4, it's VERRRRRRRRY good.

I also loved this entire series of 4 books called the Sister Circle. Deanna, you will love it too.

On the other hand, please don't waste your money and get any Hea.ther War.dells on the Kindle. I got about 6 (I think they were on special) and I've now deleted 3 because they are cr*p.

What was your favourite 2012 read?

My reading goal for this year is 65, with 15 of those books being non-fiction. I've also set a little goal to read at least a third of those books from my (physical) bookshelves.

At this rate, I might finish the physical books in the year 2016 :)

This year I'm going to read

1. The Total Money Makeover
2. Nice Girls don't get rich
3. Grace for the good girl
4. Happier at Home

amongst others

What's on your 2013 to-read list?

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Nobody cried yesterday. Are you surprised?

The babies seemed to have a nice time at school. I say "seemed" because they didn't give me much detail!!!

D said two teachers said Connor was very helpful.

However this morning Kendra told me (in exactly the same tone that I use), "there are two options: either I go to Connor's class or I have to get another teacher"

There is nothing wrong with the teacher but she loves the one lady who was helping out in Connor's class yesterday because his real teacher is off sick.

We told her it was her choice to be in separate classes and now they have to live with it (unless things go pear-shaped but I don't think they will). Yes, I'm that kind of mother.

I wait to get the low-down on how today went.

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And finally, Becky Higgins.

Thank God I can stop stalking her blog and facebook page waiting for product updates.

Seafoam arrived (it's the kit pictured below), Roz pinged me on Whatsup to tell me (who's on whatsup? I want to chat with you there) and I ordered all my stuff.

Done.

My things should arrive in SA at the end of the month, just in time for my month in review. BTW, I'm so pleased I've inspired some of you.

But I've started talking to myself because you all know I'm a huge paper lover and I could so easily spend all my money ordering project life stuff, not for scrapbooking like normal people, but for making lists :) I'm sure the teachers appreciated a nice Project Life card with the kids' school supplies nicely listed and ticked off :)

Some of the questions from that post...

1. Where do I get the books from?

The books in my post - one is a normal, 24-page photo album (this is what I suggest for anyone starting for the first time).

I make mini-books so I made the 2012 one.

I would offer to make you one but people who are creative won't think very much of MY creativity. That said, I am happy to make it.

I like the made one because I personalised it with washi tape, paper I liked, etc. and the binder rings make it easy to put extra pages in.

2. The comment about printing photos

This is not meant to be a photo book. It's just a snapshot of 1 - 3 key pics representing that month. That's all.

I take about 600 pics a month, if not more. That's what is left after I delete all the duds. And I print 3 :)

I do print 100 everytime we go on a big holiday. I printed about 12 - 16 when we went to Sabie for 4 days though.

I love the tangibility of having an album to take out and show my friends everytime I see them.

Do you still print pics?

3. Brene's autograph

I mailed Lynette but in case others were interested, she invited people to get an autographed bookplate on one of her blog posts. I had both books so I responded and lo and behold, two weeks later I had a little lovely on my desk at work. She sent a bookmark too which was super cool :)

4. Time

You've all seen how I put "month in review" on my goals every month?

That's how I get it done. I schedule it and I do it. It takes me all of 30 mins, if that. I should blog my process.

I can't stress enough how easy it is once you get started. Just go buy a 24-page photo book from CNA and start keeping notes.

Please ask away if you have more questions!

My 2011 and 2012 mini books with monthly reviews - why I document life

Thank you, A, for your recipe on my last post. I drooled this morning when I read it - can't wait to give it a bash this weekend.

Then, I'm so excited since  at least two other people are trying out lots of new recipes this year. If there are a couple more, we can do a linky once a month or something???

Speaking of which, this Saturday is our photography challenge. Our theme is faces :)

But for now, I want to talk about mini books.

I've kept a mini book for the last two years. The first year, 2011, I received a little photo album with 24 sleeves from a friend.

Remember the Keep Calm trend? I loved it so much then - I also got a lovely red pencil from her which my son threw into the heater...

Immediately I decided to do a photo and a month-in-review card for 12 months.

Done.

Here is a little sample of my book. I'm not showing you everything because, well, I tell you almost everything and I want just a few things private :)

The photo I chose is from that month but one that shows what the month was generally about - e.g. Jan shows a pizza = lots of eating out for me and D (at that point my kids didn't eat pizza!) on holiday.

Oct 2011 was the month of doctors, hospitals and gall bladders for me. Lots of you were around at that time.

I actually tossed those pj's - they had such bad memories for me of 3 am emergency room visits, emergency surgeries, etc.

Here's an interesting (to me) fact which a work friend reminded me about. That 3 am visit was on Friday 7th Oct. On Sat 8th at 9 am we were in Newtown having our beautiful pics taken by Jeanette! I think I was running on adrenaline because I don't think I look bad at all. Julia said in those comments I looked thin (BFF!) :)

Kendra looking at my hospital and her hospital pics

The Dec pic is of Kendra in the hospital and on the back I put another pic of Nanny V and Connor  = Kendra at the doc means those two were together a lot.

And then last year's book.

beautifully imperfect :)

I went bigger last year - pic of month, journalling and then, because this was my "thing" for the year, I wanted pics of me with them every month.

I will show you all those pics in another post because you can see the improvement in me being more comfortable in front of the camera.

I read a Brene book in Jan last year so I have a personally autographed sticker :), and then my Jan pages

Dec pics with us in them

Connor looking through the Dec pic

My kids love looking through my little books.

Someone said to me today "who even looks at printed photos these days?" and of course, I made a lunch appt with her for Thursday so I can brainwash her to print her pics.

I said all that to say this: I am not a scrapbooker but just the process of writing down the monthly highlights has been so good for me, to quickly recap the year.

Remember in 2011 when I wrote my good, bad and ugly about 2011, I started off writing that it was a terrible year. It was.... BUT when I started writing down the good stuff too, there was a TON that I'd forgotten. I ended off that post and that year grateful for all the good things that happened.

I really want to strongly encourage you (!) to do a monthly review (just the highlights package) in a little book. I've made year in review books for some of you - if you haven't used them yet, now would be a great time because they're small and un-intimidating :)

I never plan to stop doing a version of these and I mentioned before that I've been drawn to Project Life. I've seen millions rave about it and some say that it's too sterile and plain and whatnot. That's exactly what I like.

However, for someone so unfussy like me, this weekly layout thing is overkill. Honestly, from one week to the next I sometimes don't even get a chance to menu plan (which takes 5 - 10 minutes); where will I get 4 hours to do a weekly layout?

I'm a big believer in setting yourself up for success so I've decided to do "my version" of Project Life.

A monthly version, of course. I can certainly carve out my 30 minutes like I used to do with my monthly reviews to do my PL little version.

I also like the period of a month. A week is too much like navel-gazing for me - I would become obsessed with the details (like I need more attention to detail!) so a month is just enough of a big picture view without losing a lot of detail.

Does that make sense?

I used journalling cards I downloaded for free on Monika Wright's blog. I can't find them quickly - they may not be free downloads anymore but have a squiz.

This is the Turquoise Edition of Project Life. I've been using all these lovely cards in a million (non-Project Life) ways.

Coming up...

how I've been using my cards
how I organise them
what I'll be using for an album

Will you be documenting your life in some way this year? How?
Have I convinced anyone out there to try doing a mini book?

...these are a few of my favourite things

Cat's been posting about her kids' favourite things.

 

I tried with my kids ... it was about 65% successful... but that's a post for another day :)

 

Some of my current favourite things:

 

1. Woolworths multigrain flakes with fat-free milk

 

2. Salticrax (supposedly for my low blood pressure) with sundried tomato and basil low fat cream cheese (Connor told me he prefers them plain)

 

3. Jeanette posted a pic on her FB with Woolworths' new mini doughnuts - chocolate and apricot. I had to go out and get some! Well, the verdict is in: I still prefer the original doughnuts so I'll have to take a bag of apricot doughnuts with me to work tomorrow :) Have you tried the new mini doughnuts? What do you think?

 

4. The warmer weather... and beautiful light. I'd forgotten just how much my photography depends on GOOD light. I chased the kids around the garden after lunch today while they were kicking balls and whatnot and OH MY GOODNESS, I got some fabulous pics of them.

 

5. I've convinced my partner in photo crime, Mandy, to do something with me. We're going to host a photo link-up for the 5 Saturdays in Sept. There'll be a theme each week which is wide open to interpretation. I'll do a proper post soon but get ready with any and all cameras and let's have some fun - it's SPRING after all :) I am super-excited.

 

6. Getting stuff done - I printed the party pics and put them in a little mini album. I also got my year in review book up to date with the pics from the last couple of months. Concord pics are also printed. I've selected Charlotte and am about 10% through choosing NYC pics. I LOVE crossing things off my to-do list.

 

7. Acts of kindness - I got 4 things ready this afternoon and I can't wait for the people to get them.

 

8. Reading - I spent FOUR glorious hours reading last night before tearing myself away at 1:40 to go sleep. Yes. It was good. Another Dorothy Koomson (The woman he loved before). By the way, we're reading the Love Languages for Kids. I'm two chapters in and it's goooooood. Sadly, there are only 2 Dorothy Koomson books that I haven't read. One is on my Kindle already and one is going to be released on 30 Aug. It may be a good time to put a little dent in my 38 things list - I have about 5 reading goals on there.

 

9. Thornton's original toffee - oh my word. I'm addicted. I could happily eat the whole bag by myself (yesterday I did except for two pieces - D and the babies shared a small piece) - it is SOOO good.

 

10. Sweet babies. When they're good, they're sooooo good. You had to hear Connor in the car coming home from church this morning. So polite and well-mannered. I was utterly charmed. (of course, when they're naughty, I want to tear my hair out) 

What are some of YOUR favourite things at the moment?

PS I had to stop myself from writing down a whole lot of stationery items because stationery is really SOOOOO easy to be on any favourites list.

Sweets, sobbing, sewing, scrapbooks and scones

this is a bad pic of the left hand but you can start seeing the smudginess

right hand - smudgy nails very clear

I said to Mandy earlier this week that there are two types of mothers:

1. one doesn't say anything and hopes for the best with Mother's Day (and is often disappointed)

and

2. one makes her requests known and is sure to have at least some expectations met :)

I'm the second type so I told D to get gifts from him and the kids (we do small things) AND a card.

And then I said a good day for me would be church, lunch here at home (just us 4) - because I can't stand spending "theme" days in restaurants where they squeeze in more tables than necessary, charge the earth and give slow service, and then some alone time while the three of them visit his mother.

He agreed with me that it sounded lovely.

last Sunday the kids thought I was the coolest mother in the world when I said, "do you want lollipops?" D said, "are you SURE that's a good idea?" and I whispered, "it's all yoghurt!"

I love when they run around the garden like crazy kids. And yes, shorts in May - unheard of!

But then we had a little bit of drama.

His sister phoned to find out what they were doing for his mother.

He told her what our plans were and she wanted us all to have lunch together.

Normally this is not a problem but you'll all remember that they are not easy people to have over
(easy people for me means you get on with it and help yourself to coffee/ tea if you feel like it - I have TWINS) and are real work.

I heard him on the phone say something like, "well, it's Marcia's day too. It's not just about Mom" and my chest swelled :) I was so proud of him.

Anyway they were both a bit miffed (the mother gets all "cold" and "British" - no offence to anyone!) but that was that.

the moon last Sunday night - pic by D

So today we went to church and there was a new teacher at children's church. Connor announces immediately, "we're not allowed sweets" which was also a very proud moment - I loved it. 

Boundaries straight off the bat.

Afterwards we raced home for lunch - pizza, salad and garlic bread - and a milestone. For the first time ever the kids were allowed to sit at the dining-room table with us, on my suede chairs, with carpet! I still think of that carpet as new even though it's been 3 years already.

Of course, I put towels over the chairs and they had to wear bibs but all in all, they did well. We had to remind Connor that if he wanted to walk around, he'd go straight back to the high chair. 

my morning orange - this is my routine when the weather starts cooling - don't you love the colour?!

After lunch they set off and even though I was sorely tempted to clean, I quickly tidied the dining room and bathroom (this potty business means they trash the place every time we go do the business) and went to the study.

I had to have a cup of tea so caught up on my google reader and through a couple of clicks, read this post that made me cry the ugly cry. Seriously, I sobbed. Not for the same reason the lady cried. I sobbed so hard at the thought of those boys waiting 341 days for a sponsor. I can't imagine how abandoned they feel when other kids are being sponsored all around them. Oh, I'm a marshmellow inside.

Anyway, had to get myself together so I decided to sew. Except I didn't thread the thing properly and the thread bust loose and I can't remember how to thread the machine. So I gave up on that for now.

And finally did what I actually wanted to do today - my Sabie mini-scrapbook. I'm telling you - there's no better way to get things done than a quick mini-book. When this post publishes, I'm going to go through my pics and choose the ones to have printed and then I can take pics...

I'm thinking of doing a monthly craft afternoon if there's enough interest - I've seen something similar on at least two blogs where a group of ladies in the city come together once a month to do a craft. One group does the same thing but the other group comes together and each one does whatever she wanted to get done that month.

I like a combination of both ideas. Maybe every 3rd one the same and then on the other two, catch up on your own ideas. So I would start the thing by showing how I do the mini-scrapbooks and provide all the materials for each person to make their own there and then. The ladies would then just pay for the stuff so each one doesn't have to run around finding things and can just come to create.

What do you think? Would you come?

And lastly, I did a favour for a friend of mine and bought something for her (with her money but it had to be on my card using my loyalty points) and yesterday when I got home, D told me she'd just been and dropped off a box for me. When I looked inside, I SCREAMED! Yes, I did. It was a box of scones. 

Now here's the thing - she honestly makes the best scones I've ever tasted (and I'm a scone person) and she knows I think so, so this really felt like a labour of love just for me. My love language is acts of service :) D just came in and said, "please tell K those were the best scones in living memory " 

LOL

So I had a lovely day (even the sobbing was kind of lovely).

How was your Sunday?

Getting my craft on - Mini scrapbook travel journal

Whenever we used to travel overseas, I'd keep a little notebook with me and divide it into 3 sections:

1. things to do
2. actual day to day notes - there's nothing worse than getting back and whole days of your holiday are blank
3. budgets (I get quite freaked out if I don't know what's going on with the money so if this seems boring to you, that's why!)

Sometime last year I saw someone make a scrapbook travel journal and I was inspired. Hers was much too "fussy" for my taste (and non-interest in scrapbooking) but I loved the idea of capturing memories on the day and just putting pics in when you get back.

After all, I did the daily writing anyway.

So eventually I had all the supplies and to be honest, I only assembled the book on my first night on holiday but at least everything was ready.

Supplies

1. Chipboard covers
2. Binder rings
3. Two-hole punch
4. Scrapbook paper
5. Cardstock or project board
6. Notebook paper - I used a graph book for the budget papers (I haven't shown those because they're private!)
7. Stamps
8. Glue
9. Photos
10. Number stickers (before I saw these, I was going to use plain circle stickers and write the numbers on them)

How to make

1. Decide how big you want your journal. I initially used one double spread per day we were away but then later after going through all the pics, added another four pages.
2. Lay everything out first to make sure what's in your head works out visually too. I had to change some papers here and there because the colours didn't look good together.
3. When you're happy, punch the paper and bind with binder rings.
4. I saw the idea for the cover page ages ago (I'm not sure where) so I made sure to get that pic on day 1.
5. I wrote in my book every night, sometimes I had to catch up two nights.
6. I made a separate folder within my Ballito folder called scrapbook and dragged the pics I needed to print. Sometimes I cheated and made collages.
7. I tried various methods of sticking the photos to the pages - the one that worked best for me was putting glue on the page and then affixing the photo. 
8. A normal glue stick works better than liquid glue, double-sided tape or those sticky dots. Nice to know cheaper is best :)
9. And there it is - a quick way of capturing our memories - in all its imperfect glory. 
10. We all LOVE it - me, D and the kids keep paging through it and best of all, because it's not perfect, I'm not at all precious about people (two and a half year old twins!) touching it :)

bakers twine from In Good Company - I won't tell you how much I spent when I went but it was three times what I'd budgeted.

examples of the extra pages I added

the "splash" card is a free download from Monika Wright

I had a little man wanting in on the photo action

this is what all the journalling pages look like - words on one side and pic on the other

 

This was undoubtedly one of the best ideas I've ever had (not that I tend to the dramatic!) and I will definitely be making more for gifts and for our future trips.

I still have not blogged or posted pics of half of our travels from 2008 and 2009 but if I'd had little books like these they would have been DONE! I used to blog ours but it got away from us.

How do you document your travel (international and domestic) adventures?

What do you think of my little book?

PS. Linking up to all the parties in the link on my menu bar

Six on Saturday & 7 easy steps to make a mini scrapbook

1. Thank you so much for all the fabulous and challenging comments on the Nanny V post. D and I spoke a bit about it - not enough - so I haven't resolved it yet. BUT I chatted to her a bit today and lots of things were uncovered (not bad things). I don't mean to be secretive - it really is another post all on its own.

2. Kendra is going through a phase where she WAILS (emotional blackmail?) every time I say no to her. She had this going on a few months ago and thankfully snapped out of it but it's back. I want to flip my lid when it happens. It's literally, "no, Kendra, it's time to eat now" WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Thank goodness she' s cute but suggestions?


3. Tell me if this is weird but I'm a little bit (okay, a lot) in love with Connor's baby arms. It was a gorgeous, hot day today (the forecast said 26 but I'm convinced it was warmer; or it might be because I'm so starved of heat) and the kids were in short sleeves. And... I want to bite those gorgeous baby forearms.



4. Today we went to a lovely birthday party (my friend's twin girls). They had a horse there and despite much prepping by me, Kendra was Not Interested. At all. Connor couldn't wait to "ride horsey" and was in heaven for about 10 seconds before he said, "get off, Mummy" and that was that. One of the birthday twins, H, was so cute. The horse snorted on her hand and she went, "naughty horsey". I love it!

As you know, I love the people-watching - every parent is so different. Things that I can't relax about don't phase others and I suppose my constant "no sweets before you eat properly" amuse other parents. Love seeing all the differences though. Sharon and gorgeous Ava were there too.

They had a photographer there and I hope and pray she got one or two good ones of our kids.

5. I got TWO birthday presents on Friday (3 weeks later - I love it :)). One of them is the most beautiful gift ever. We all oohed and aahed at my desk and the others proclaimed it to be "so you". I agree. Thank you again, Julia, you made my day.





6. Now onto Thursday's crafting night.

Oh boy, did I ever underestimate how long it would take me to get going. One thing I did right was to focus on the main thing I wanted to get accomplished, my year in review book. My friend, R, the mother of the birthday twins, bought me a brag book and it has exactly 24 pages.

My intention is to have one picture summarising the month, or the feeling of the month, and then on the other side, a list of my monthly highlights. 12 months X 2 pages = perfect to use up the book.

I'm still not done with it!

I went through each of my monthly folders to see what I'd been taking pictures of and that mostly did it for me BUT I also need to go through my blog (this one) to see what else was going on - as you know, every significant thing can't always be photographed, like feelings breakthroughs.

Onward and upward.

Also, scrapbookers, do you just have all the pics on hand you want to scrap? Or do you plan everything, get photos printed, and then throw it all together.

I ask because I'm hugely impatient. Even now, I've selected pics Jan - Jul and am itching to just go get them printed even though I promised myself I would only print when I have 100 (it then costs R1,95 per print as opposed to R2,95 per print if less than 100)


6. I opened my big mouth on Thursday and promised to make a little something for our PA's granddaughter because she said she (granddaughter) would LOVE to do crafting with me (LOL - me!).

So even though it was late (in the evening - Simon and Garfunkel :)) on Thursday when I finally finished working on my year in review book, I quickly whipped up this little scrapbook for an 8-year-old girl.



7 easy steps to make a mini scrapbook

1. Take 5 sheets of 12 X 12 paper and cut into 4 pieces so you have 20 small sheets.
2. Cut out some cardboard for the front and back covers.
3. Arrange the paper 1,2,3,4,5 between the covers.
4. Use two binder rings (of course!)
5. Attach a tag (I have a tag punch - I think this is my favourite together with the 2-inch circle punch) in a co-ordinating colour.
6. Make the binder rings pretty with co-ordinating ribbon.
7. Add some washi tape (anyone have any EASY tutorials (no curved surfaces as I'm challenged...) for washi tape?).

That's it!

I was very happy with it especially in the light of day but what do you think?

I'm linking this up to Lolly Jane - you've got to love a set of crafting twin girls who live next to each other :)

Also, my linky is still open - if you made something this last week, link up!

Over to you - share something with me that's going on in your life

PS I don't think K likes Simon and Garfunkel. I just pulled up the YouTube video of Late in the evening and I heard her tossing and turning :) So young and yet so fussy! What's your favourite Simon and Garfunkel song (Ginger - do you like them?)? Mine is Sounds of Silence.