31 before 31 scrapbook page

i made a scrapbook page for my project life year 30 album listing my 31 things before 31... actually i made this page back in the summer of 2013, but just found the pics on my camera. like i said recently, the autumn of 2013 was crazy busy.  and i found pics of my layouts of project life for june, july and i believe august of 2013 that i will probably post to the blog soon as well.

studio calico - spaulding bowl card kit

after months and months i'm finally crafting again! my new space still isn't quite complete, but at least it's now workable. last weekend and this weekend i decided to try it out and i'm loving it! i also discovered today that i quite like setting up my extra table to counter height and and standing while i work.

i thought i'd first jump in by using up the studio calico spaulding bowl card kit from their january copper mountain kit. i really wanted to see how many cards i get out of this kit. guess how many!?! 10 cards! now i did use an extra pattern paper of a print of girls, some twine and the white cardstock that wasn't included. but from the kit i also had one paper that was a plain without a pattern that i never used and i didn't use all the embellishments either. so here are 9 out of the 10 cards i made... the 10th card i submitted for publication, so we'll see!

more and less

i used to make new years resolutions...then i never stuck to them. and so i stopped making them. i still love the way the new year comes around and it feels like a fresh start. but you know what?...every day and every moment is an opportunity for a fresh start.

over the past few months these things have been on my heart. i've already made steps toward several of them, but i thought i'd take the opportunity today to share them with you.

it all began with the song, "i need your glory" and the lyrics that say "less of me and more of you is what i need".  that spoke so to my heart, especially the idea of more and less. so the other day i sat down and made this list of more and less for the things that have been on my heart.

more Jesus / less me

more water / less soda

more movement / less lazy

more reading / less tv/youtube

more contentment / less spending

more fruits & veggies / less carbs

more crafting / less comparrison

more correspondence / less forgetful

more trusting God / less self-doubt

more praising / less disengaged

more pampering / less busy

more friendly / less introverted

more modest / less tainted

more learning / less dying

more natural / less processed

more present / less distracted

more giving / less selfish

sometimes it's easier in my mind to say i'd rather have more of one thing and less of another than to simply list things i'd like to change.  for every bad habit, i need to replace it with a good habit.  by focusing on the good habit it helps me keep it all in a positive perspective.

- jess

2014 happy new year!

happy new year!!!

i'm thankful for another year of life and good health.  i know most people say they can't believe another year is gone, but i'm honestly glad to wrap up 2013...it was a rough year.  the first half seemed to fly by then the last half was the rough part...

i'm not taking ali edwards' class this year, only because i have so much else on my plate, but i still would like to choose a word for 2014.  i know we are already into a couple days of the year, but i'm not worried that i haven't chose a word yet.  i'll choose when i'm ready and it will all work out how it is supposed to :-)

in the mean time... here is the current list of words i'm contemplating. i kind of have it narrowed down to three different ones in my mind, but who knows, another word could come sweeping by and land on my shoulders to stay this year!

• mindful
• embrace
• intention
• commit
• integrity
• renew
• revive
• cultivate
• prevail
• dream
• regenerate
• follow-through
• refresh
• focus
• centered

i'll do a blog update when my word has made it's home with me...

- jess

more layouts

hello... hello!  is anyone still reading my blog?  gosh it's been a while since i posted.  but it's been busy, busy, busy here.  still in the middle of moving house but i wanted to post a couple of layouts that i worked on a few months back that i never got around to posting here.

this first one i really wanted to stick to gold and white.  i can't seem to get enough of anything gold right now!

the next one was from one of my 31 before 31 challenges - purple layout!  i really love how it turned out, but if i had it to do over i'm not sure i would of used that photo.  ha!...it's just so unflattering!

- jess