Project Life 2015; January

After dipping my toe into the whole Project Life thing last summer ( you can read about that HERE)
I'm going for it and doing this whole year.

To save on processing costs I'm having my pictures printed in monthly batches so I'm always a month behind with my lay-outs.
Today I'm sharing my January pages.

My frontpage: not quite shure of it but i'm sticking with it...

On the left: a quote from my flow daily quote calender.
On the right: week 1: reading in  bed, a thursday 3 and shopping in Amsterdam

 A close up of week 1.

 Week 2:
On the left: my tarot year spread, walking with Abby and studying

 The right side of week 2:
Another thursday 3, an afternoon at The Beiaard and a currently card.

Week 3:
All of my different notebooks and planners for this year, my one-line-a-day journal bed time routine, visiting the camingfair; abby wasn't allowed to walk around. The store ave had some problems with dogs peeing on tents in the past..  But in a shoppingcart she was able to come in. 
And the cowl my mom made me. And sent me by mail from Germany.

Week 4: We went on a small vacation: to a bungalowpark in Drenthe ( about a 2 hours drive away) I finally rememberd to snap a selfie during the trip. We travel a lot by car together ( we have friends and family all around Holland) and I always love those roadtrips. 
Our vacation mostly consisted of Nico reading , Abby napping in the most awkward positions and me crocheting.. Oh and swimming in the huge pool inside a tropical dome. No pictures of that though ;-)
I also attached a map of the bungalowpark.

More of week 4: another thursday 3 and some pictures of our walk around the forest in Emmen. The pile of rocks is called a "hunnebed"; and ancient gravehill. It was the first snow of the year for us and it was lovely. And Abby had a ball bouncing around and racing at full speed. 

 More week 4: It was a week filled with so much fun that I needed more pages. I added the map from our walk. And documented the snow we had. We don't have a lot of snow here so it's always a bit special. On our last night we went out to dinner and I had to make my own Mojito. That was quite fun. We also played some pool. I'm really not that good but it's always fun.

 Week 5: Back Home. Our monday consisted of packing up and going home. Best bit of coming home: finally having a latte again! In the mug I bought in Emmen. I also documented a bit of food this week: Chilli Con Carne and Chicken with Black Bean sauce and rice. 

 Week 5 part 2: Another thursday 3, a very cold morning on my way to work and we had a doggy-date with friends and their bullterriër; a nice walk and lunch at grandcafe Turf.

So that was January.
As I'm quite new to this it's a very steep learning curve.
I already learned I need to take more pictures and have more of them printed.
And I've learned that I'm quite capable of making some cards myself.
Also: I have way to much of the wrong stuff. And not enough of the right bits and pieces.

It will be nice to see my pages evolve over the year!

2015; my plans

First of all I would like to wish you all a very happy 2015!
May you have the most fabulous year!

To make my own 2015 fabulous I'm keeping my intentions ( I prefer using "intentions" instead of "resolutions") simple. And the amout of "big projects" to a minimum.

On intentions;
Instead of having a huge list of thing I want to do I'm keeping my list short and do-able.
I find that the longer the list, the more items I will forget about. And that often leaves me bummed and frustrated about forgetting them.

On my list this year:

* finish my course in Human Resources.
I'm aiming to finsih it by July. The course itself is not really a difficult course. But I'm finding it hard to make enough time to study. I really need to make more of a effort...

* Find a job in HR
Because that's what I'm taking the course for!
My current contract as a domestic aid ends July 31st. And as I still need to pay my bills after that..
Also I am really in need of a job where I can use my brain.

* Stick to the budget
Money doesn't grow on trees ( at least; not to my knowledge).
I've been trying to live on a budget. I can tell you; it's hard!
But it is nescessary especially with my impending loss of work.

* keep the balance
I started a new-to-me kind of physical therapy in november and it is really working for me. I haven't been taking nearly as much painkillers lately (none at all actually) and I'm feeling full of energy. But this balance-thing is still hard for me. I've been falling off the wagon here and there, falling back into my old ways. Simply because when the pain and fatigue go you forget how bad it was..
I'm getting back into planning my day to keep me pain-free and full of energy!

Besides these main intentions I also have some "big projects" for 2015. I call them big projects because they will run troughout the year.

Big Project no1.  Finish a full year of Project life.
Besides documenting a full year of my life doing a project life for me also means I have to go and do something. I was reading this post by Caylee Grey about the lessons she learned in her second year of Project Life. She notes that it is very hard to document nothing. It seems so obvious but I never really thought about it.
And she is right. So I'm planning to make a real effort in undertaking things. Small trips, a workshop or 2, a day here and there. Not just for the sake of documenting. But because even though I love staying home and just be. I also love going out and see things.

I'm planning to have my photo's printed out once a month at HEMA to cut down on printing costs.
* Printing at home is not an option for me; it drives me crazy!
This does mean I'm almost a month behind at all times. But I'm keeping track of all my stories in my bullet-journal, regular journal and on Instagram so that won't be a problem.

Big Project no2. My One Line A Day journal
 I have always been a journaler but on a very irregualer basis. And thats okay with me.
But I find that I tend to focus of the special, positive or big events and skip daily things.
A while back I bought this one line a day journal and have had it on the shelves waiting for me to begin.
I kept putting it off. ..
But on January 1st I finally started. And so far ( 12 days..) have kept it up every day.
Hoping to keep it up for the next 5 years. Can't wait to see all of the entries..


And that's it for this year. Obviously I will do a lot of crocheting, snail-mailing, writing ,drawing and tons of things that catch my intrest.
But for now; these are my plans.

What are your plans, hopes and dreams for 2015?

still here..

hellooooo!!!
I'm still here!!

I've fallen off the blogging wagon a bit lately (again).
I have lots of stories in my brain and have lots to say about everything but I'm having a hard time putting it all into words.

Please bear with me while I find my rythem again.
 I'll be back!!!

December is...

well to be honest; december is kicking my butt!

I am suffering from fully developed december-panic.
My inner Miss Perfect is nagging at me about all sorts of things I should be doing. Or finish before the 31st.

December is always a very busy month for us. We have several birthdays, had a weekend at my mother in Rotterdam checking out my brothers new appartment, celebrating "Sinterklaas" and had a lovely company-dinner.
Still to come are our traditional "Gourmet-extravaganza" with both of our families on the first christmas day (wich means 11 people around the table)  and "Left-over Madness" on the day after that.
And then there is new years eve.... Still not quite shure how that will be..

Now don't get me wrong; I love every one of our parties  and get-togethers. I like having everyone over and seeing them enjoy themselves. Talk with people I haven't seen in a while and make shure they have a lovely time.

But Miss Perfect is freaking me out with every thing she thinks needs to be done.
And not just done but done to perfection. Instagram-perfection is what she demands...
So I'm buried in shopping-trips, endless grocerylists, christmas decorations are everywhere and my "projects I want to finish berore 2015"- list is getting longer every day.. ...
Also all sorts of plans for 2015 are starting to pop into my brain.. Things I want to do, sights I want to see and projects I want to do..

After a major Fybromyalgia flare-up this sunday evening ( fyrbo is stress-enhanced) I'm changing things up.
Putting into practise all of the things I've learned during these past few weeks in my psychosomatic physical therapy ( there is a special blogpost on that coming..) I'm changing things around here. And will try to make Miss Perfect shut up.
Starting with a major brain-dump in my bulletjournal.
To get all of those plans, need-to's and want-to's out of my brain.
 That way I don't have them floating around in my head constantly popping up. They are right there, parked on a piece of paper. I can't forget them but don't need to think about them constantly.

Next I decided to do most of my pre-christmas grocery shopping online. That means all I have to do is pick it up. Because the pre-christmas grocery store madness really messes me up.. So that's one less thing on my mind.

So my mantra for the rest of the month is : "Keep it simple"
* oh... and "don't freak out"

Ho are you all dealing with this december-thing?

Every dog needs a blanket..

a few weeks ago we where visiting my mom. Abby wanted to be as close to us as possible and setteled on a diningroom chair for a nap.. But without a pillow or blanket she just couldn't get comfortable. The end-result was a very annoying little dog because she didn't get enough sleep.
** yes dogs are really just like children..

So we made a mental note to bring a blanket for her next time.
Now we do have some blankets around. Fleece ones, woven ones.. but the are all quite big and cumbersome to take with us.
Offcourse I could have gone out and buy something for her.
But with a big stash of yarn .. why not make one?

After a bit of rummaging through my stash I found 5 colors in the same yarn that worked well together. ** I used cheap yarn from Action; 1 euro per ball. I had to buy an extra gray one because there was only a small amount left in my stash

I really didn't know how big the blanket would get so for the pattern I decided to do one big Granny Square. I was planning to use up all of the yarn and just see how big it would become. The whole blanket took me about 2 weeks to make. I am a slow crocheter and if you really put yourself into it you will probably finish it sooner.

Despite the fact that there were some not so pretty yarn-joins in the balls Abby loves her blanket. And I am quite happy with how it turned out. It is big enough for her to snuggle under and small enough for us to easily take with us. 

So everybody is happy! 

November is for...

.. accepting Fall is really here

... starting my 10 month study to beome an HR employee

... finishing up re-organising my study

... drinking lots of tea

... getting started with the preperations for our big christmas dinner.
    Starting with making and sending out the invitations

... the annual "all you can eat fish night" at the village where we used to live. My father-in-law
    organises it so we "have " to be there ;-)

... crocheting some wristwarmers and a scarf for myself

... and finishing up some crochet-projects I have been working on this year

... including my "mood blanket" that I am a bit behind on. I want to be all caught up before the busy       december

... a birthday party and sleep-over without Abby. She will be staying at a friends house

... getting better at the whole work and play balance

... learning to say "I want.." instead of  "I must.."

... thinking about my project life plans for 2015

Oh I can already tell this month will be so busy!
What are your plans for this month?

Sunday Adventure: Bully walk

Yesterday was the day.. the long awaited bully walk.
It took place in the beautifull "Loonse en Drunense Duinen". An area that is part forrest and part sandplains. With some dunes it makes for a fabulous place to walk your dog.. or family ;-)
And an opportunity to walk together with so many bull terriërs is to awesome to pass up.

Ever since our first dog Bachera we started joining these kinds of walks. Most of them are breed-specific but most of the time you are welcome to join with other dogs; as long as you are passionate about the breed that's walking.
We started out with Dogo Argentino walks ( Bachera was part Dogo and Keyser was pure bred).
And then when Abby came to live with us we also started going to Bully Walks.
If you are passionate about a specific breed, have a dog or are thinking about getting a cenrtain breed I can really reccomend these kinds of walks. You can usually find then on facebook, forums and sometimes your local breed club organises them.

The walk was about an hour and a half drive away but that is really not that bad. We started at 11.00 and had signed up for the 8 km. We expected to do that in about 2 hours. But we didn't realise part of the walk would be trough loose sand so it took us a bit longer..
But with all of the bullies that wasn't a problem.
There were bullies in all shapes and sizes and different colors. I think I hugged most of them.. ;-)
They were all so cute!!
Abby did awesome! She was friendly with all dogs and obviously enjoyed many hugs and lovings from experienced bully-huggers. Even the long walk and rough terrain wasn't a problem for her.

After the long and tiresome walk there was time for some drinks and more bully-hugging obviously!
I brought the big camera with me and took lots of pictures while Nico handled Abby.

Some tips if your are going on a groep-walk:
*check the weather and dress accordingly. But be prepared to get hot as you are walking. Layers work best.
* bring enough water for you and your dog. But don't let your dog drink to much at a time.
* make shure the collar and leash are up for some pulling. Your dog will probably be very excited and he/she may well forget their leash-manners.
* Don't be offended if your are asked to keep your distance form a certain dog. Not all dogs get along.
* walking with a group often means you don't walk as fast as you expected. Or maybe the group travels faster then your ususal pace ;-)

But most of all; have fun! And enjoy all of the dogs!

And now; on with the regular monday -things!