A Week in the Life project done!
(and some weekend thoughts)

What I'm thinking about right now...
~ How cool it is for Alabama to still be #1, and for Texas to be #2 right behind them. My family is itching for a Crimson Tide vs. Longhorns national championship game. And this week is Iron Bowl weekend; then we play Florida in the SEC championship game two weekends from now. It's football nirvana! (And how unexpected was that Texas Tech game? Wow!) ~ How excited I am that I've actually learned how to make coffee. I know, I'm 40-years-old, so it's a little late coming, but I'm loving it. As long as I have creamer and whipped cream, I'm a happy coffee drinker! ~ How nice it was to have "date night" with Gary this weekend. ~ How much I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. All the family members I'll see, and all the great food I can already taste in my mouth! ~ How gorgeous those Cullen boys from Twilight are! Yep, Edward was pretty divine, but I was really loving Carlise. ~ How I'm also liking my guy Tony Romo. So nice to have him back as Cowboys quarterback! ~ How great it is to see McKenna and Delaney getting along so well. Now that Delaney's almost a teenager, it seems that they are relating to each other even better. McKenna actually told Delaney she wanted her advice on something tonight, and it just warmed my heart to see them having "girl talk"together. ~ How nice it's been to have the fireplace roaring. I'm not a cold weather kind of gal most of the time, but the cool briskness in the air has been nice. And I love my fireplace! ~ Okay, I could go on and on, but I'm going to stop right now, so that I can share...

My completed "A Week in the Life" project album!

You may remember that I did the "A Week in the Life" project that was being done by scrapbookers and bloggers all over the Web back in October (inspired orginally by Ali Edwardsl you can go to this Flickr page too and see all sorts of cool creations from the project). The idea was to document an entire week in your life, by taking photos of both the "big" and "small" events and moments, and then also writing about the week. Then you were challenged to create an album or book of some sort.

I've worked on mine here-and-there over the last several weeks and I finally finished it last night. I'm really excited about how it turned out!

I made my book by cutting chipboard into covers and cutting heavy cardstock for the inside pages. I bound it all with plastic coils, and then kept it pretty simple. Its embellishments consist mostly of rub-on titles (on the cover, and for the days of the week), some stickers (mostly from a really incredible RAK I got from Stacy; Thank you!!), and strips of cardstock. I rounded some of the corners of my photos, and kept others straight. You'll also see some cool collage photos throughout the book (this is something new that the photo lab at Walgreens is doing, and it's very cool! They cost the same as a normal 4 x 6 print!). My favorite design feature of the book, though, is the way I put small "pages" throughout the book. I cut mats for photos and put them in as smaller, individual pages. I just really like how the pages "flip" throughout the book (I think you'll see what I mean in the photos below).

So, without further ado, here is what I came up with...




































Whew...that was a lot of pages!

The pictures and memories captured in this book are just priceless to me, and I'm so glad I spent the time working on this project. It really helped me realize that it's not just the "big" moments that make life grand, but it's the "small" ones as well. It also helped me get excited about the legacy that this book will leave behind; I like to imagine McKenna, Delaney, and Sydney looking at it someday with their kids or grandkids and all of them being able to get a sense of what our lives were "really" like during this time.

If you didn't do this project this year, I really would recommend that you try it someday!

And now, before I go, I wanted to share a few more of my creations with you. These are actually some items I created for my Etsy shop.

I want my shop, My Story Designs, to provide inspiration for both writers and scrapbookers, so I've added a couple of notebooks, journals, and resources to my shop.

The first thing is a devotional booklet that I actually sell at the various writing conferences that I speak at. It's called Day by Day, and is designed for Christian writers. It has 30 devotions on such topics as writers block, prayer, mission statements, finding time to write, and living the creative life. I'm selling it on Etsy as a PDF document.

And then I've got this handmade album that is perfect for a new Mom in your life (or to preserve those pictures of your own daughter that you've never gotten around to scrapping)...

And this fun, jot-it-down carry along notebook. It's got 50 inside pages that you can use to take notes, draw sketches, or (perfect right now!) write down those things you're grateful for...


And this cool collection of 22 "quotable quotes" tags and titles for your scrapbook pages...

Check out these items at my Etsy Shop, and be on the look out for Christmas items I'm going to be adding this week. I've got some mini Christmas albums for all of your Christmas pictures and memories; and consider purchasing some of your gifts for other people from the shop. I appreciate your visits there!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and I hope you all are getting into a Thanksgiving sort of mood. The week promises to be a really joyful one and I, for one, can't wait for it!