project life: the beginning

I've seen lots of people on the internet using project life to save memories from the year and I thought this would be a great way to record our first year of married life.  Joshua and I will be moving to Oslo, Norway shortly after our wedding.  Not only we will be married, but we will be living a crazy adventure in a foreign country so it will be a year worthy of recording.  Josh will be studying, but as of now I don't have anything to do in Oslo.  Enter: project life- the perfect week by week memory keeping project and something fun for me to do on a consistent basis!  I just couldn't wait until after our wedding to start this project, so I started this summer. However, since it's the summer and the main purpose of this project is to record our married life, I've done a lot of lumping weeks together onto one page.  Two of my closest friends are getting married this summer, so each wedding will have it's own page. Basically, before the wedding each page will be different-a jumble of weeks or an entire wedding.  But after the wedding and once we get settled in   I love that this project is flexible because, of course, since I'm making it I can do whatever I want with it. The binder, page inserts and cardstock kit were a graduation gift from my soon to be in-laws!

Cover Page:

I used some of our engagement photos for this page, a bicycle greeting card Josh sent me last summer and some patterned paper from the PL Cobalt Paper Pack.  The heart button is from ormolu.

 

Graduation and the first few weeks of summer:

I included lots of journaling on the graduation page about the events of the weekend and my feelings about graduation.

The first few weeks of summer were pretty busy for me and I didn't have much much time to spend on this project, so it made sense to just lump them together into one page.  In the top two 4x6 slots I described what Josh and I will each be doing for the first part of the summer.  My photo is of my work desk with lesson planning stuff sprawled about, while Josh's photo features him working in the garden.  He has a few different part time jobs this summer, which allows him to be flexible and work when he wants.  Also, the garden has grown so much since that photo was taken.  It's like a jungle out there now. My friends and I went to see Othello in St. Louis at Shakespeare in the Park.  A different work of Shakespeare is performed every summer in Forest Park.  I love it.

 

  

I'm planning to do the date card the same way each week during the summer. Mostly likely I will have a different "theme" for my date cards during the different seasons.  I printed off the dates of each week using bebas font and will attach it to some sort of chevron patterned paper.  The "summer 2012" button came with my order from ormolu! 

 

So far I am loving this project.  The main obstacle I'm encountering is not having a good way to print off photos.  I have a good printer at home, but don't want to pay for the ink since I will only be here for 3 more weeks.  It is pretty cheap for me to print off photos at the local drugstore or CVS, but I can't seem to figure out how to print 3x4 photos.  Any suggestions?

 Supplies: Black Signature Binder, Project Life Cardstock- Cobalt Collection, Photo Pocket Pages Designs A and B (I have this variety pack),  buttons and paper tabs from Ormolu, colorful Sharpies, American Crafts Slick Writers. Since I'm pretty thrifty, I plan on mostly using supplies I already have.  However, I have discovered the wonderful world of free project life printable journaling cards.  I suggest searching for project life on pinterest to find lots of freebies. 

summer beats/beets

This post is mostly about beets-that awesome purple vegetable that stains everything the perfect purple color- but the pun was so good that I thought I also ought to post something about beats, you know as in music beats.  So here is a really cool song:

 

And now, for the beets.  I LOVE beets. I love their earthy taste and their purpely color. Plus, they are super healthy.  When I studied abroad in Costa Rica I learned about organic farming and more than ever before I began to care about the food I ate.  At that point in my life I was already a vegetarian, but after visiting farms and plantations, I began to care about eating food in season and eating locally grown food.  As a college student sharing food with four other girls, eating local, seasonal food is tough and sometimes expensive.  But as a college graduate living at home for the summer with a vegetable garden in the backyard, this is not as much of a problem.  A couple weeks ago I visited the local farmer's market and picked up many goodies including beets.  I like to boil them and eat them kind of lukewarm on a salad or just by themselves.  Here's my simple, step by step recipe:

Step 1: obtain fresh beets:

  
Step 2: cut beets into chunks:

Step 3: boil beets (covered) for 20-30 minutes until tender or the beets reach the consistency you desire:

 

Step 4: strain beets and run cool water over them several times:

Step 5: after beets have cooled a bit, peel off the skin with your fingers (it's easy!):

 Step 6: cut beets into smaller chunks if you want and enjoy!

Do you like beets?

What is your favorite summer veggie?

currently: late june/early july

 

 

enjoying nature + my new camera

nearly finished teaching for the summer

reading The Cloister Walk

eating summer veggies from the garden

loving bikes rides to and from work

harvesting a few tomatoes here and there

running despite the heat

watching the Olympic trials

looking forward to two weddings: Niquita's and then MINE!