“Oh Patrick”

I try so hard to take pictures of the things we do together, the moments that I look at you and think “I want to remember this.” Getting cones at the dairy. The time you hung the curtains in the bedroom. Making dinner. Just being together on the couch. You don’t always play along. Or the camera doesn’t always cooperate and you are left recreating a pose that was only meant to be instantaneous. In those moments, you make a face and say “not again”, or you stick the ice cream up your nose, to which I roll my eyes and say, “Oh Patrick.”

10 pieces of paper on my desk right now

1) Post-it note detailing airfares between Austin and Minneapolis for various dates in July and August.
2) Details and measurements on furniture that my dad is bringing us this weekend.
3) Basic Word Order in Mayan Languages (England 1991), open to pp. 464-5
4) Syllabus for Language Change and Language Variation (the course I am teaching in July)
5) A gazillion Bed Bath & Beyond coupons
6) Goal tracking sheet - top priorities: plan lectures for my course, work on numerals article, and finish chapter 5 of my dissertation
7) 3 outdated to do lists, all related to in-progress craft projects
8) Notes to myself on a word order alternation in Kokama-Kokamilla
9) A bunch of Target receipts
10) A book called Step-by-Step Window Treatments

Week in the Life Progress

I know it is practically July and I still have my Week in the Life banner on my blog and I haven't shown you any pictures of the album yet. True confession here, folks: finishing projects is not my strong suit. I am a good shopper and a good planner and a good starter, but finishing... well, there's room for improvement there. I am determined to get this one done, though, so here is an update on the album.

I have all of the memorabilia assembled, I just need to finish doing the photos! It is taking a while because I am cropping my photos to fit 4 photos onto one 5x7 canvas. Ali Edwards made it look so easy, a one day project. Yeah, well, it's not that fast for me. Here is a sample of one 5x7 from Wednesday:



Each day will have a page with a large 8.5x4.75 photo on the top left, a 4x6 picture of what I was wearing that day (lower left), and the first page of notes for that day. At the end of that day's section, there will be room for another 8.5x4.75 photo (or layout), and the rest of my notes from the day. The notes are included exactly as I originally wrote them in my notebook, no editing, no transferring to nicer paper, no stress. I had thought I would write more when it came time to put the album together, but I'm trying to make it easier on myself to finish, so I just ripped them out of the notebook and plopped them in the page protector. Good thing they fit!



In between those "anchor" pages of sorts will be various pages for miscellaneous paper from the day:


as well as baseball card divided page protectors for memorabilia, smaller photos (the aforementioned 2.5x3.5s) and journaling:





(The letter on the right is from my uncle Eric, who does not have his own email account or access to the internet. His handwritten letters are definitely a part of my day-to-day life and I am so glad this one was dated within the dates of week in the life so that I could include it (even though it arrived later the next week). This is something that I will look back on and be glad that I have, and it serves as a reminder for why I want to FINISH this project!)

Shower Crafts

Here is a summary of some of the things I made for my cousin's bridal shower.

Me, the bride, and my sister (who was a huge help pulling everything together!)


You can see the tissue poms that I made to decorate with hanging in the windows in the background.

The favors I made:



They are a block of post-it notes inside a cardstock cover with "Best Wishes" stamped on the front.

Cupcake tags:



They spell out "Best Wishes Megan". The bride saved the m and the b (her future initials) for her wedding scrapbook. (Actually she saved the w instead of the m, because her aunt accidentally threw out the m!)

As promised

I promised a picture of the bridal shower invitations that I made for my cousin's shower, and at long last, here it is!



Card measures 5x7 (A7). I mailed them in plain white envelopes from Joann's.

I used scalloped A7 notes from Archiver's in Kiwi for the base. I printed the invitations at home on Stampin Up! whisper white cardstock. Ink color matches the bridesmaids' dresses (David's Bridal Clover). Ribbon and polka dot paper are both from Archiver's, I don't remember what brand, but I think the polka dot paper was called Grasshopper. Both the polka dot paper and the kiwi scalloped notes have a metallic sheen to them that doesn't fully come through in the photograph. The ribbon is probably my favorite part - it has a great ruffled edge that dresses up the invite just perfectly.

Giveaways at Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Write. Click. Scrapbook. is giving away scrapbooking products all week - today there are some fun Stampin Up! giveaways.

Stay tuned for some project updates...