Sunday Seven

Each month I will be sharing a Sunday Seven post, which will be a round of a few of my favourite things I’ve seen on the web. I like the idea of celebrating some of my favourite sites, along with new sites that I discover and find inspiring.

• Loving this series of paintings on Instagram. The ones by PaperPaintStudio, at least. 28 paintings in 28 days actually sounds rather fun!
• Reading I Quit Sugar. It’s quite fascinating, and I realised that all her suggestions to cut down are already things that I do, so I’m not doing too badly so far! I also have her second book, I Quit Sugar for Life.
• On the topic of food, I want to try these different spice mixes and these double stuffed oreo jello shots. I love all the recipes on this site!
• I really need to assess my craft room to make it work better for me and this post gives some interesting ideas. Love all of the art in this room, and the plant!
• Super inspired by Paige Evans scrapbook pages. So colourful and happy and intricate!
• These bookends are pretty cute, and very fitting for a bookshelf!
• I love reflecting posts, and this one by Elise about 20 lessons learnt in her 20’s is awesome as always!

 

BOLD Intentions || February

As part of my One Little Word for 2015, I am setting a handful of BOLD Intentions each month. These are areas that I am going to focus on each month to try to make some good progress with my One Little Word.

For February, my BOLD Intentions are:

• Start working on an Autumn capsule wardrobe. There are at least a few things that I need to add to it, so I see a shopping trip on the horizon
• Start an 8 week sugar detox following the advice in I Quit Sugar
• Give my blog a bit of a face lift. Nothing major just yet, mostly an updated header and side bar and maybe the footer
• Paint 1-2 doors
• Research selling stock photos. I think this could be a fun project to collate and sell a few stock photos

I will report back at the start of March with an update as to how I go :)

Cards, Cards and more Cards!

This month I’ve had 3 family birthdays to celebrate, an 80th birthday for one of Michael’s work colleagues, and a pen pal card, so I’ve been kept busy with card making so far! Below are some of the cards I’ve made, using card stock, sequins, washi tape, wood veneer shapes, silhouette cuts and stamping.

I am thoroughly enjoying card making lately, and find that I’m sticking to fairly simple designs but ones with good amounts of impact. And I can happily say, so far, all the recipients have loved them!

If you have any card inspiration to share, feel free to do so in the comments :)

You can see some of my other card posts here, here, here and here.

 

Michael’s Christmas Present

Call me crazy, but I have already made a start on Michael’s Christmas present for this year. I had an idea just before Christmas that I fell in love with, and knowing that it will be one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever done, I decided I better get started as early as possible!

This year for his present, I am making a book that records our year together. Big things, little things, and everything in between. I am using an A4 visual art book, and made sure it has about 100 pages, so that I have enough room for the year. I am doing a double page spread for each week, and adding in random art journal pages and notes and things in between.

Some things I am including throughout this book will include photos, hand drawn images, business cards and tickets for when we go places, random memorabilia that fits within a week, things like grocery lists and what we are eating, house projects, date nights, little things I love about him, events that we go to like family birthdays, and I’m sure there will be much more! As for supplies I am using, since I want to keep the book fairly flat, I am sticking mostly with stamps, washi tape, and paints or pencils for colour.

I plan on working on this every couple of weeks, and printing photos about once a month once I know roughly what size I want them to be. And the best  part is, he doesn’t know a thing about it, since I can do some of it at work, while visiting my sisters or when he is away for work, so I should be able to keep this as a surprise for the whole year!

You can see that I plan the pages out in pencil first, just to get an idea of where to place photos or memorabilia, what to journal about, and where I want to add a doodled image. This makes it a lot easier to work with when I sit down to work on the album to say the least! I still have to add the photos to the pages that I’ve completed so far, but I’ll probably do that over the weekend.

Sunday Seven

Each month I will be sharing a Sunday Seven post, which will be a round of a few of my favourite things I’ve seen on the web. I like the idea of celebrating some of my favourite sites, along with new sites that I discover and find inspiring.

• These salads in jars look amazing! I need to try making some of these for work lunches for sure!
• I have yet to make a Valentine’s Day card for Michael, so I love Elise’s ideas for them here
• Keeping indoor plant alive is something I sometimes struggle with, but there are some good tips here
• Amy Tangerine has released a fun creative handbook if you sign up with her, and she shows the video of the first page here
• I love a good photo challenge and this one looks super fun seeing as I also love colour!
• This post about putting together a pen pal letter is fun!
• On the topic of pen pal letters, I love this concept of sending love letters to people in need, and leaving random ones hidden around the place. I really want to get involved!

Easy Breakfast Idea || Poached Eggs

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. I’ve always loved breakfast foods, and love going to cafes that have all day breakfasts. Sometimes I don’t want to go out though, and want something quick an easy, along with awesomely healthy, that I can make at home to satisfy my breakfast cravings. Enter, poached eggs!

Both me and Michael have become a fan of poached eggs, especially on avocado toast. My sister taught me how to make these, and they are super easy to make, so I thought I’d share here.

Ingredients:

500ml water
1/4 cup white vinegar
As many eggs as you want to cook

Method:

1. Add the water and vinegar together in a pot and bring to a light simmer
2. Crack an egg into a small cup (I use a 1/2 cup measuring cup)
3. Once the water is at a light simmer, stir in a circular movement with a fork, then tip the egg into the center. This will help it to hold together, rather than turning out a mess!
4. Cook for about 2 minutes for a soft yolk, or 4 minutes for a firm yolk
5. Use a slotted spoon to put out of the water, and dry on some paper towel
6. Repeat for as many eggs as you are cooking. If I’m making a few, to serve them up at the same time, I cook them one at a time and then pop them back in the water together at the end to warm up again. I’ve never had much success cooking more than 2 at once!

Serving ideas:

These are great by themselves on some buttered toast, or with a little salt and pepper. They also go well on toast spread with some avocado, or toast with ham. My sister loves them as eggs benedict too.

Workspace Wednesday

This week I have been document each day in my Personal Planner, writing daily in my 5 year journal (I can’t believe this is now the second year with this book!), working on Project Life, planning out a heap of blog posts and reading Maze Runner. Shortly I will be working on making another card for my sister-in-law as well. It’s been a good week so far!

Project Life 2015 || Weeks 1 and 2

Week 1 ||

Dates: 1st-4th January

What happened this week? We enjoyed Year Years Day off work, brought some stools for our kitchen bench, I harvested my first tomato, Bec came back from the USA and we had a lunch date, I made a card and we had a great planning session to start out the month

Anything special in the spread? I’ve decided to use some simple 3×4 title cards for the year, with just the week number and the date. I also altered the template to make one 6×8 spot.

Overall thoughts: I’m not sure I’m a fan of the BOLD Intentions card, but it works, so for now, I will leave it. I love how simple the page was to put together, since I’m not trying to journal for every single photo… The Week in Review cards are still one of my favourite things!

Supplies used: Cathy Zielski’s Life Basics No. 01 Templates, Cathy Zielski’s Week in Review cards, Honey full digital kit, an image from Amy Tangarine’s blog, a New Year’s freebie from Laurel Lane and font is Calibri

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Week 2 ||

Dates: 5th-11th January

What happened this week? Michael went back to work, I recieved an Ali Edwards Art Print, I grabbed some travel guides from the travel agent after having a bad day, we had the first pizza night in awhile, I finished reading Eat Pray Love, I made another card, we spent a day at the beach, and we celebrated a birthday

Anything special in the spread? I altered the template again to make a 4×12 space for the beach picture, and a 6×8 space for the scanned Art Print.

Overall thoughts: I love this layout! I need to include more people pictures though, since we spent a good amount of time with both of our families this week though.

Supplies used: Cathy Zielski’s Life Basics No. 01 Templates, Cathy Zielski’s Week in Review cards, Strawberry full digital kit, a scan of Ali Edwards Art Print and font is Calibri

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To find out more about Project Life, you can check out Becky Higgins blog here, which has lots of photo ideas and inspiration. You can see all of my Project Life 2015 posts here, 2014 posts here, and 2013 Project Life posts here. I also have this post of Tips and Ideas for Documenting Week in the Life, which has many ideas that can carry over to Project Life easily.

Around Here

Around here I have been planning meals for the week and can’t wait for all the good food we will be eating!

Around here I have not brought breakfast or lunch a single time all week! It is one of my goals this year to limit the amount of money that I am spending on food at work

Around here I am reading Maze Runner. Loved the movie and didn’t even know it was a book until recently. I now have 3 books from the series, but need to get the prequel

Around here I am excited that we get fly screens installed next week, since it’s been hot and I can’t wait I get to sleep with the windows open without getting eaten alive by mozzies!

Around here I am really enjoying making cards. It feels super special to give handmade cards to everyone for their birthdays!

Around here I am hooked on Blog Lovin’ as a blog reader! I read blogs between my laptop, phone and work computer and this allows me to always know where I am up to in my reading, and even save my favourite posts that I can refer back to!

Around here I have finally updated my iPhone and deleted a heap of stuff from it, so it’s going a bit quicker. I still want an iPhone 6 Plus though!

Around here I have been spending some time working on Michael’s Christmas present for this year. Yes, I’m crazy for starting early, but it’s going to be a big project! More to come later this month

Around here I am writing daily in my 5 year journal again. I love this book so much! This is now my 2nd year filling it out, and it’s interesting to compare my answers to last years

Around here I am back to doing Pilates and loving the changes I am already seeing in my body

 

Book Review: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love is about a woman’s journey to find what she really wants in life after she finds herself panicked and confused over where she was in life. She had what could be considered a perfect life with a successful career, husband and house, but felt like there was something missing. The book talks about how she left her old life behind and followed her heart to learn about pleasure and indulging in Italy, devotion and faith in India and balance in Indonesia, to come out the other side happy and fulfilled.

I don’t usually read memoirs, or all that much about self-discovery, but this one has been on my reading list for quite a while. I finally brought it when my sisters’ and I decided to start a family book club, and this was the first pick. While I found it harder take in during parts of the book compared to the young adult books I usually choose, I did really enjoy this book, and managed to learn from it as well. It took me about 3 weeks to get through, and most of the way though, it reminded me that we are all responsible for our own happiness, even if it is sometimes hard to work out what it is we want, and even harder to let go of society’s expectations about what we should do.

Elizabeth Gilbert is a very likable character in her own book, and with the way she writes, I found her book to be easy to read. Yes, she glossed over a lot of the harder and more personal details of her tale, but that helps to give the book the upbeat feeling that it has. To be quite honest, if she went too deep into the details about depression or loneliness, it would not have been as interesting a read.

What I would have liked would have been more details about the places that she went… The names of the restaurants, little gems about the places she explored, things like that. I understand this is not just a travelogue though, so I can see how those little details that I love about travel could come across as out-of-place in a story like this. One of the things I really like is that it wasn’t preachy and overly religious, even though she did explore the topics of devotion and faith in India. I think she had an interesting way of exploring it, to say the least!

After reading this book, I now really want to watch the movie as well!