May Project Life Layout - Carefree

I'm sharing a simple Project Life Layout today with the new May Take 10 Kits. I had several fun pictures of my youngest that morning in May.

I used my 2" Fiskars Punch on a close-up of my son with the giant dalmation lovie that he had to hold in the cart at Target. I really thought I was going to be walking out of the store with that huge puppy. I paired it with one of the exclusive wood veneers. I really like these veneers because they are very thin, so don't add a lot of bulk to your pages. Those word strips are by Tim Holtz.

I love that I captured this moment. I like using filler cards as backgrounds for journaling. I chose to use vellum here so the pattern could show through.

The washi is from Stampin' Up. I also used another Tim Holtz phrase sticker here. And the "Carefree" and "Yes" stamped images are from the exclusive set included in the May Pocket Kit. 

The alpha stickers in the kit were great right over this photo with the spots!! 

Holly | www.paintedladiesjournal.com

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Holly: Week in the Life Day 5 - Photos and Words

Drew. 5am? Feet pounding down the hall to our bedroom. Must cuddle. Must take up the most room. 

The coffee I made last night and bag I packed. Drew had an important morning today. We hurried off after school drop off to Garfield Park where the CPS building was located for his evaluation. His speech is the main concern.

We arrived 15 minutes early to my relief. With Morning Chicago rush hour traffic, I wasn't sure how long it would take. We got started right away. It was super stressful, but I'll spare you the suspense, he qualified for speech services. This is huge. At the beginning of our meeting, the speech pathologist was basically telling me he did not qualify since the report his EI speech therapist provided stated that he was only 23% delayed. I was shocked. He needs this. And CPS didn't get the preK app process started yet. Most other non-CPS options are filled up for the fall. Preference in CPS preK is given to 4-yr-olds. Our particular neighborhood school gets 600+ preK applicants. The stress was building as she told me why he probably wouldn't qualify. Meanwhile, Drew was upset and crying so hard I could barely carry on a conversation or think straight, wanting to tell them everything I could. I asked for a break. I tried everything. Finally, the idea of eating Oat Squares calmed him and sat in my lap quietly eating. When, she was finally able to do an evaluation for him due to his willingness to participate, she agreed with the 23% language delay but felt he was far less intelligible (the average person can't understand him) than indicated. Less than 50%, and this qualified for services. 

We had 45 minutes to eat a snack, change a diaper and relax with the iPad mini, while they wrote up their evaluation and created his IEP.

I was super thankful that this was the conclusion and that we were done. Drew was very happy to be walking out the doors. As we walked to the car, I held him in my arms and he planted a big kiss on my cheek.

Poor guy fell asleep holding his Dinos ("Rawrs") and Mac Truck. Throwing a full blown tantrum is exhausting (for everyone).

But we needed to make a stop at Target on our way home.

"Eat nana" His language is at the low end of normal, according to that evaluation. He wanted these at Target and ate two when we got home!

I finished up my sample of the Daisy Troop craft for today.

And got a little food prep done for tonight's meal.

Amy came at 3pm (she has Kendall on Thursdays) and once a month also comes over here to stay with the boys during Audrey and my Daisy Troop Meeting.

Our last meeting of the year! All that is left is our Build-a-Bear Party and Bridging Ceremony. They become Brownies!

Pink elephant! I love it!

(I chose to not post the photo for privacy for this next bit of words)

I was checking in with Facebook and discovered that my Dad's best friend passed away. I'm friends with his daughter and just couldn't believe it. I haven't talked to Dad yet. So sad to hear this. Ed was always around when I was growing up. They worked together and most days rode in together, so Ed was usually at our house at some point in the late afternoon/evening, picking up his truck. He was always so funny and liked to tease my sister and I. Our family dog hated him for that reason. R.I.P. Eddie.

Taco Night!

Daddy was home early enough to sit down and eat as a family tonight. I love when this happens.

Audrey gets a homework packet on Monday and it is due on Friday. We usually work on a few pages every day after we get back from school with a snack. But tonight, we had that Daisy Meeting. Working on fractions! First Grade.

Quick PJ change. Daddy took them to the playground at 7pm! What a treat. But now we have to rush through bedtime.

This whole week A and K have been going to bed without pull-ups!! Only a few accidents.

We make sure to use the potty again right before bed.

Audrey up to the top bunk.

I was looking at emails this evening and discovered that I got a request for a guest post! I applied to do a guest post for her on a travelogue and I'm in!  I started looking at what I need to do to finish that up!

Drew just goes until he can't some days. Just laid right down on the floor and went to sleep.

Watching Sideways with a glass of Pinot Noir and my sweetie. "If anyone starts drinking merlot, I'm leaving. I won't drink merlot!!!!"

May PL app Roundup

I've been sharing this month all of my Week in the Life pages that I completed using ready made digi templates from Just Jaimee (you can go here, here and here to catch up) and now I'd like to show another way that I can keep up with documenting my memories.  As I have older children (really adults now but I am not that old so I will still call them children...) and I work full time I decided that I would do Project Life in a more monthly format.  I have been loving using the Project Life app to do some quick pages but also because I am constantly on the go for work or traveling for work (or traveling in a car to go visit one of said children) so I have a lot of time pulling out my laptop is not so easy!

I love the ease of the app - and the ability to have access to my full library of journaling and filler cards - or not... Either way I have the photos in one place with stories is the most important..  This month the schedule was crazy!!!! so easy is the name of the game.  I do my writing in either Phonto or in PSE 11. When they are all done I run Wendyzine's action (Studio Wendy) which adds a small drop shadow and resizes for Shutterfly (Last year I printed 10 X 10 books and will continue the same this year. It is the best combination of size and ease of handling!).  I will be creating a blog post about my whole process with the app, but in the meantime I wanted to share these...

Using the Just Add Color kit from the app - wanted to really highlight these panoramic photos

Using the Ready, Set, Go Value card kit from the app

Using the Just Add Color kit from the app.. Here I did add the text in PSE 11 because I wanted to really pack in a lot of information...

I had an afternoon free on a business trip to DC so I got a little museum viewing in at my two favorite museums!!

They had the most amazing nature photography exhibit - I could have had 6 pages worth - I loved every single one.  Using the Happiness Is edition kit in the app - and here I did do the writing in the app itself, adjusting the line spacing to get the  alignment I wanted.

Documenting another work trip in February, also using the Happiness Edition - however you could never tell that it is the same kit. Here I did the journaling in Phonto.

A third page using Happiness Is edition in the app, text in PSE 11 using the color of the background paper.

Hope you enjoyed my round up and can see some of the versatility in the app.  I'll highlighting a few more pages - using some cards from other kits, whether digi edition cards from Project Life or other digital designers to show off how you can document your memories on the go!

Holly: Week in the Life Day 4 - Photos and Words

On the weekend, Dave usually makes a batch of chocolate chip pancakes which are then stashed in groups of three in the freezer. Audrey almost always picks pancakes for breakfast.

Drew and Kendall picked cereal. These days we have three regulars. Oatmeal Squares, Honey Nut Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats.

I really want that shower this morning. Let's see if I can be done in 5 minutes!

Go go go! I typically choose sleep in the morning over showers, and today was no exception. I got up at 7am like most days. Not really time to get a shower, but I'm desperate.

8 minutes! Not bad. But no time for hair, so....

A wet braid will do since I don't have time to dry and flat iron it. 

Audrey's least favorite morning task. Getting her hair brushed. I'm removing yesterday's braid and putting it in a fresh pony tail today. 

And we are out the door! Ready to cross the street with the masses just in time for Audrey to make it. Kendall goes in a little bit after Audrey at the preschool doors. 

Drew and I had to stop off at Jewel for a few sandwich fixing items for our next task. While I was there, I got a halogen bulb to replace the one that went out in the kitchen and dishwasher soap (only 2 pellets left!)

Our Jewel is under renovation right now. So finding the cucumbers and tomatoes was a new challenge since nothing is where it typically sits. But we found them, and were on our way. "C" (who I was meeting up with) spent an hour this morning already running around to the other groceries stores for fresh lettuce.

I was going to treat myself to a coffee from Cafe Tola, but then "C" replied (when I asked if anyone else wanted something) that she had iced Starbucks. Bingo!

So Drew and I headed over to C's house. It was foggy and damp this morning but the air smelled fresh and felt crisp.

C has a beautiful single family home in our neighborhood. We are here!

I stopped to admire her flowers before ringing the bell.

Got to chopping right away! Serrated knife for the tricky tomatoes. 

Tonja, Amy and I came over to help C put sandwiches together for Teacher Appreciation Week. Today was the luncheon. Amy's putting on the hummus. 

Then, we added cucumber and tomato for this veggie sandwich.

C's sitter was there, but Will wasn't having it. He needed his mama within eyesight. Drew understood exactly.

We also put together BLTs and Coronation Chicken Salad sandwiches. Here they are, seran wrapped and ready to go. 

On our way to go pick up Kendall, we had a little time to pick up a few more items from Jewel to bring home. Marshmallows were one of the necessities... Drew managed to put a hole smack dab in the middle of the bag to extract one of these delicacies. Lol.

Back at home, I'm finally unloading the dishwasher and reloading with the dishes from breakfast. One of those daily mundane items.

What a treat! For lunch, I'm making a coronation chicken salad sandwich left over from this morning. It is delish!

Oh Drew. Pantless and no pillows on the couch. This happens almost daily. 

I have to remember to water these Dollar Spot Target plants. We have sunflowers and cosmos. The odds are not good for them. We seem to loose interest after they first sprout...

Fell asleep at 2:00 again! But today we do not pick up Audrey until 4:15pm because she has Girl Power Yoga at school. 

Sending off next week's blog post to Sara Mitchell of The Studio 29 Designs. I design Project Life layouts using her Take 10 Kits on her Creative Team. So fun. I love it. It has really helped me better my scrapping skillz! 

And anytime I try to spend time on my laptop or doing basically anything, this happens. Drew gets into things. He likes to empty my coffee container. Oh, and there is a half eaten piece of bread.

Girl Power Yoga was offered in the after school programs and we were able to get a spot this session! 

After we picked up Audrey, we headed to the Blaine playground (the big one) for little bit.

Making tortellini for dinner and a salad. 

Kendall likes the Tom's Strawberry toothpaste! Brush-a Brush-a Brush-a!

Tonight, Kendall read to me. He tried to read this one to me last night, but his little brother wanted the book so badly that we couldn't do it. "Not a Box" He was so proud to "read" it to me. He has started talking about being so excited to go to Kindergarten this Fall. It makes my heart happy.

And that concludes Wednesday. Whew. A long one.

Holly

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