December Daily: update

It is only december 13th and I am already way behind on my pages.
I have been keeping up with writing a story about each day (in the cute little notebook I made during the Holiday Extravaganza). But I've been busy with Life so making the actual pages just hasn't happend yet.

Today I'll share the pages I've finished.

first up I decorated the inside cover with a calendar.

Day one: a lazy breakfast at Turf 

followed by our monthly beachwalk with a group of dogs.

Day 2: A peak in my On-going projects basket;

 My first "big" crochet project: Wristwarmers
(which I've currently finished by the way)

Day 3: some lovely red bushes I saw while walking Abby

And my monthly birthday-card writing.

Day 4: When I get home, dinner is on the table

 Day 5: "Sinterklaas"

A vintage postcard I found in a small shop

Day 6: A drawing of my favorite mug.
(I am so proud of that drawing!!)

My dad bought it for me at the Disney Shop in London. 

And the wrapper of my current favorite tea.

And how are you doing with your December Daily album?

Leave a link in the comments and I'll hop over to your blog and have a look...

Holiday Extravaganza

This past weekend I took part in The Holiday Extravaganza over on rukristin.com.

Now you have to know that the whole christmas-thing doesn't start really start here in Holland until "Sinterklaas" leaves on the 6th of December. So we are not exactly in christmas-mode yet.
But this was just too much fun to miss!

There where guest-posts, DIY's, games and a total of 10 challenges.
Because of the time difference I missed the live blog Party chat. But thankfully they recorded it.
I stil need to watch it though XD

I went on a major craft-binge and had a go at ALL of the 10 challenges. And I proud to announce that I finished every one of them! Which is a big thing for someone who isn't very good at finishing things.

 I'll show you what I made:

 Challenge no.1 : Holiday Storytelling.

 The challenge was to create a project that tells of one of your holiday stories.
I picked our tradition to buy a tree. We always do this right after "Sinterklaas". I made these pictures last year for my december daily. I love how they tell a little story together.

Challenge no.2 : Holiday Cards

The challenge was to create a hand-made card to give to a friend.

Now I write a lot of christmas-cards. But never tried to make any of my own. So I wasn't really shure where to begin. I folded a regular white correspondece-card in half. then used my calligraphy-skills and wrote on it.

it still felt a bit bar after that. So I stamped some gold stars on it and glued some gold star-sequins on.
I really like how it turned out. Maybe next year I will make my own christmas-cards...

Challenge no.3 : Document the right now.

The challenge was to document the right now.
I still had a big currentl-card lying around. So I filled it out and glued it on some christmas-paper.
Taadaahh!

Challenge no4. A few of my favorite things..

The challenge was to make a project based on a given mood-board. It included hot pink and gold stationary , hand lettering and gold stars.. I knew instantly I wantend to make these hot pink note cards with some gold stars on the bottom. After a lengthy search of my stash I couldn't find any paper in the right kind of pink. 

The shops had already closed. And wouldn't be open on sunday... Thankfully a phone-call by my mother-in-law reveald that the shops would be open!! Yay! So after our monthly walk on the beach with some dogs I had to do some shopping. I found the perfect pink cards.

I made the "notes"-stamp myself and stamped the gold stars on. ( I am very much in love with the cheap HEMA star-stamp and Hero Arts gold ink)

 Challenge no.5 : Prepairing a holiday album

That was an easy challenge. I already started on putting together my December Daily album. And because I did some work on it fridaynight I got to use it for this challenge =)

More on my december daily album HERE

Challenge no. 6. Color challenge

The challenge was to use a certain colorscheme in a project. It didn't scream "holiday" to me but I knew this picture of Abby would be perfect. I used some of my christmas paper and added some stickers ("cut & paste" I believe)  I bought at the scrapbook-fair this summer.

Next up is to find a frame for it..

Challenge no.7 Get messy.

The challenge was to get messy and use paints, sprays, mists or any messy products on the next project.

So I pulled out my acryllic paints and painted a christmas tree on a small postcard-size canvas. I stuck some sparkles and a gold star in the wet paint.

As usual when I use paints I was coverd in it.. messy indeed..

Challenge no. 8 Minimalist style.

The challenge was to embrace minimalism and create a project that speaks volumes without shoving it in your face.

I had a really hard time with this one..
I combined this challenge with a project I had already in the planning. For my intuïtive developement course I need to make/buy a smal present for the last day. I knew instantly I wanted to make a stamp. But all the designs I could think of where to difficult. And then.. this one came to mind. Simple yet meaningfull.

Challenge no.9 DIY gift-wrap and Tags

The challenge was to create your own gift wrapping, tags of other gifwrapping embellishments.

This matched up very well with my stamp for my course. I found small kraft box in my stash just big enough for the stamp and a small inkpad. I stamped it with gold stars (there is that HEMA stamp and Hero ink again).
I cut a little tag with the stamps desing on it and wrapped it all up with a white and yellow ribbon.
Done!

Challenge no 10. Holiday Extravaganza Inspiration.

The challenge was to use one of the holiday extravaganza projects as inspiration.

One of the gustposts was a DIY to upcycle a moleksine. I am a big fan of notebooks and decided this was it. I have a "small" stash of empty notebooks inculding some faux-moleskines. I love the kraft covers. They are easily decorated for specific occasions.
I took some papers from my december daily stash and stuck them on. Trimmed the edges and added a label on the front. When the glue is totally dry I will add a layer of clear adhiesive plastic.
I'll use the little cutie to help me record my december stories for my december daily album.

And with that cute little notebook I finished all the holiday extravaganza challenges! 

I really enjoyed all the challenges and getting to do so much crafting.
Did you take part in the holiday extravaganza? 

Week in the life; the album

In September I participated in week in the life
(You can read about it here)
After taking lots of pictures and blogging about it next step was to make an album of it.
I really wanted to do the album in project life-style.
But I didn't have enough inserts, no album to put the inserts in and no photoshop skills to resize the pictures.
So I had the pictures printend out and they sat on my desk for weeks.

For those of you who have been reading along here for longer know I have a very difficult time with finishing projects. But all of those unfinished projects have  tendency to weigh heavy on my mind.
And with the december daily challenge looming I really wantend to have this project finished before december1st.

So I gatherd some supplies (from my very sad little stash) and sat down to get it done.

Supplies I used:
* some bycicle-paper from a paperblock bought at a cheap store
* yellow ribbon
*  Thickers "Emerald"
* Cut & Paste stickers from Jen Allyson Charm "bliss"and "care free"
* alphabet stamps from HEMA

I originally wanted to bind the whole album together with binderrings. But they are soooo hard to find. You can only order them online. But since all the online scrapbook stores charge huge prices for shipping below a certain amount. Binderrings cost almost nothing, so you need to order a ridiculous amount of them.
So Nico suggested to use ribbon.
It's not ideal but with my next scrapbook-order I will order some binderrings.

I've kept the day-pages simple. I just stamped the day on them and used a sticker to decorate it a bit.
The pictures are a mix of 10x15 cm and 10x10 cm.
I just punched holes in them and made a stack of them.

So with the week in the life thing all sorted out wan wrapped up I'm ready for the december daily challenge!

Doodle-a-day: October favorites

I used to draw..a lot.. I started with copying all sorts of stickers and pictures I saw. Then Life got in the way and during my study I didn't have very much time.
A few year ago I picked up my pencil again and found the "everyday matters" group om Flickr. I did some challenges but after a while I don't know.. I just stopped.

Fast forward to today.
A few weeks ago I picked up a book by Lou Niestadt. it talked about how to combine creating with everyday life. She writes how she draws every day. I knew I had to do that. But finding inspiration to draw every single day... pfff....
Then one day I saw the "doodle-a-day october" list on Instagram. An idea from the very talented @ellolovey.
Here was something I could do; a small doodle veryday and a list of topics was handend to you.
I have to admit I didn't draw everyday. Some day's I was so busy that I really forgot. But I did do all 31 drawings and finished only 2 days late. Yay for me!!
Being that some prompts were really "amercan culture"based and I live in Holland not all prompts were something I really could relate to. But that also made it somewhat of a challenge.
I'm not sharing all of them (If you really want to see them all, find me on Instagram @janineve1)
But these were my favorites:

** the 200 in the top right corner?

I was aiming for 2013.... 

I set myself some boundries at the start of the month. I could only use a black pen, no pencil or eraser. So mistakes I would just have to live with. The perfectionist in me will fus over hours with one single drawing if it gets the chance...

So these are my favorites form last month. I just started with the doodle-a-day November list. I will be back with my favorites in december.

But if you can't wait, follow me @janineve1 on Instagram =)

Week in the life: Sunday

This week I am doing my first ever week in the life project.

The creator of this project, Ali Edwards, wirtes: "A seven-day documentary project, Week In The Life is an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of your life with photos and words. The albums I’ve created using the basics outlined below are some of my most treasured in that they are wonderfully true representations of my family’s life at a particular point in time. From the mundane to the profound, it’s those simple little everyday moments that I treasure most."

Sunday

I found this little moth when I opened the curtains..

We spend the whole morning doing some essential cleaning. 

But in the afternoon we always try to go to the park with the dogs. 

Mostly we go to the "Purmerender Bos"

Wich is a forest type park.

Abby loves to ly at my feet when we're going somewhere..

Keyser is in the back..

ready..set..go go go!!

Normally we go with my mother-in-law who lives near the park. She was on a birthday visit somewhere and couldn't come. 

But a friend of Nico went with us.. 

The rest of the afternoon consisted of watching a movie (Pitch Black) and just hanging on the couch.

for dinner we had chicken pies and some salad.

After dinner we took the dogs for another small walk and watched tv ( "hawaii five-o" and "person of interest") until bed time.

Week in the Life: Saturday

This week I am doing my first ever week in the life project.

The creator of this project, Ali Edwards, wirtes: "A seven-day documentary project, Week In The Life is an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of your life with photos and words. The albums I’ve created using the basics outlined below are some of my most treasured in that they are wonderfully true representations of my family’s life at a particular point in time. From the mundane to the profound, it’s those simple little everyday moments that I treasure most."

Saturday

Good Morning. A quick glimpse of my bathroom cabinet...

Breakfast: Boiled egg on toast with Chai Tea

We are hanging out until Nico gets home. 

Keyser is making the most of the fact he has the couch to himself..

I totally forgot to take pictures while in the supermarket.

So this picture of a full fridge will have to do.
I love having a full fridge..

Afternoon walk:

It has been very windy last night and this branch fell out of a tree.

Keyser needs to investigate...

We had a pretty lazy afternoon. This is a bit in our kitchen. I'working on dinner...

Tonight we're having "Nasi" for dinner. 

(Indonesian style fried rice)

My dad used to make it on Saturday's.

I just can't seem to get mine to taste like his did...

Some relaxing after dinner....

I love the smell of fresh laundy hanging inside. 

It makes the whole house smell of fabric softener...

Tonight is movie-night. 

We went out to see "White House Down"

We normally go to Purmerend but for this movie we had to go to Heerhugowaard. 

They still have a puase in the movie. Which gives to time to stock up on popcorn for the second half of the movie. But it also means We didn't get home until 1.30...

So we went straight to bed when we got home...

Tomorrow will be the last day of my "week in the life"..