Week In the Life 2014 | My Game Plan

POSTED ON October 24, 2014 IN A Week In the Life, A Week In the Life 2014

Welcome to Week in the Life 2014.

If you haven’t heard about Week In the Life before, Week In the Life is a week-long memory keeping project hosted by Ali Edwards where the goal is to capture a week in your life using photos + words. This year she is running WITL from Monday, October 27th to Sunday, November 2nd, which makes Monday Day 1.

I participated in Week In the Life back in July 2011 and I loved the end result so much I’ve been dying to do it again. I made plans in both 2012 and 2013 to do it again but each time I got about a day into it and realized enough time hadn’t passed for me to feel inspired by the project again. I felt like I was taking the same photos and telling the same story and it just wasn’t inspiring to me.

But now, here we are over three years later, and a family of three instead of two. Our story feels fresh and new and I’m ready to do WITL again, for real, this time. So here’s my plan for 2014:

My Game Plan for Week In the Life 2014

To prepare myself for Week In the Life 2014, I looked through all of my previous Week In the Life posts as well as my 2011 WITL photo book, and I realized something: finding a balance between fresh and new and what’s worked for me in the past is going to be key.

So here are the details of my plan:

Capture photos next week: Next week is the official Week In the Life capture week and I’ll be taking all of my photos during the week as well. Although I’m sure I’ll use my iPhone camera quite a bit because it’s quick and easy, my goal is to focus on using my DSLR. I’m currently ~~stalking the UPS man~~ waiting patiently for my brand new, shiny Canon 6D to arrive so I expect this goal will be quite easy!

Divide my day into sections: One of the best decisions I made for WITL 2011 was to divide my day up into sections (morning, afternoon, evening) and focus on capturing two of the three sections each day, rather than trying to capture every minute of every day for a week straight – which gets old after awhile. This allowed me to avoid taking the same photos every day (like my morning routine) while still getting a clear picture of our life over the course of the week.

Focus on words + photos: For the design, clean & simple was my motto in 2011 and it’ll be again this time as well. As much as I love playing with digital scrapbooking products, I know myself well enough to know I’ll never get this project done if I don’t keep the design simple.

Create using InDesign: Adobe InDesign is my go-to tool for projects like this because the multipage format makes it so much easier to put the book together than creating the pages individually in Photoshop. I’ve already mocked up a basic design to use for my album (sneak peek above!) but I’m open to switching things up if I change my mind based on my photos.

Print as a photo book: In 2011 I printed my album as an 8×10 Blurb book which I loved and may do again, but I’m also toying with doing a 6×8 Artifact Uprising soft cover book instead just to switch things up. I’m a bit undecided about the smaller size and I do love the idea of the two books being the same, so I plan to see how my photo-taking goes for the week and then decide when I get to the creation phase.

Set myself a deadline: I’m horrible about keeping deadlines I set for myself, but I also don’t want this project to end up in the “unfinished projects pile.” So my goal is to have my WITL 2014 album completed and printed before I start my Holiday Faves album in mid-November (no later than Thanksgiving). Once I start on something new I know I won’t want to come back to it so it’s best to finish it before then.

Clean up our apartment over the weekend: Yep, no shame here. I’m all for keeping it real but a little less clutter around our small apartment would be nice. If I’m feeling extra gung-ho I may even try to finish up the last few home tasks that have been hanging around my todo list since we moved in over a year ago. Nothing like a week long photo session to jumpstart the ol’ productivity, right?

I admit I’m feeling a little nervous about Week In the Life this go around.

Overall, I feel good about my plan, even if it’s a little up in the air for my taste, and I know this project is going to be a lot of work. Plus I loved the photo book I made in 2011 SO much that I’m not sure I can ever duplicate that again.

But I sure am willing to try, so this next week I’m going to focus on having fun and reminding myself that it doesn’t have to be perfect to turn out awesome.

Wish me luck!

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14 in 2014

POSTED ON March 5, 2014 IN 14 in 2014, Goal Setting, Life Adventures

If you’ve been around Nettio Designs for awhile, you’ll know that I’m no stranger to goal-setting.

Now goal finishing?

That’s a whole different story.

But even when I don’t complete the ambitious goals I set out to accomplish, like my 28 at 28 list or my 30 Creative Adventures, I find that just the act of setting those goals in the first place pushes me to get more done than I would have without setting those goals at all.

So when the beginning of 2014 rolled around, I started thinking about what I wanted to accomplish this year and how I wanted to do it. Did I want to set another One Little Word? Resolutions? 2014 monthly goals?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this year I wanted to keep things simple and actionable. As much as I love the idea of One Little Word, it can sometimes seem so abstract.

So instead I decided on creating a simple 14 in 2014 list: 14 random things I’d like to be able to check off at the end of year. Since we’re expecting a mid-year arrival for our little dude, it’s a little baby-heavy but it’s also a mix of life, work, home design and scrapbooking goals which I love.

Since we’re a few months into 2014, I thought it’d be fun to share the progress I’ve made on my list so far. It’s still very much a work-in-progress but so far it’s turning out to be motivating me to take action much more so than other things I’ve done in the past. I think perhaps because everything on the list is more project based?

Here’s where I’m at as of March 5, 2014. Blue is In Progress and Green & ~~crossed off~~ is Done:

Finish Advent Calendar: This is a sewing project I’ve been working on for TWO Christmases now and it’s so close to being done, I can taste it. I’m making myself finish this before tackling any of the other “fun” items on my list.
~~Launch KickAss Scrapbooking:~~ DONE as of March 3.
Hang Adventure wall
Make a baby quilt: I’m waiting to officially start this until after I’ve checked off #1 but you can see the fabric I bought for it in this post.
Go on a baby moon: We’re keeping it simple but plans are in the works.
Organize digital photos
Turn master bedroom into a cozy space: Hoping to check this off this month, just have to convince Adam to do a little painting for me.
Make art for over the TV
Decorate office/nursery for the lil’ dude’s arrival: Mostly just plans & pins at this point but I’m excited to get started.
Have a baby. : ) Very much in progress, haha. Just over 100 days to go!
Create Project Life 6/6
Scrap 100 layouts: 7/100. This is an item that’s been on my list for oh, 8 years now and I’ve never managed to accomplish it. Clearly I’ll have to pick up the pace to do it this year.
Read 10 books: 1.5/10. Ten is probably laughable for you hardcore readers but I mostly read blogs and such these days so 10 books sounded doable to me. Book 1 for the year was The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte.
Learn to use my Silhouette: As a lovely desk accent…yes.

I fully don’t expect to accomplish everything on the list but I’ve learned over the years of goal-setting that the dreaming/planning/scheming is just as much a part of the fun for me as actually completing the goals, so I’m excited to see what 2014 brings!

What about you? Any other 2014 goal-setters out there?

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New Release | FAVE-O-RITES 2013: December Faves

POSTED ON December 14, 2013 IN Monthly Faves 2013, Shop News & Releases

Happy Sweet Shoppe Saturday everyone! Can you believe the end of 2013 is already here? This week’s release marks not only my final New Release of 2013 but also the final release in one of my absolute FAVE (pun-intended) scrapbooking projects: the Monthly Faves!

For those new to Nettio Designs & the Faves, my Monthly Faves project is a year-long scrapbooking project where each month you scrapbook one layout documenting your top-ten favorite things from that month. Your faves can be anything: events, food, tv shows, technology, clothing – the sky’s the limit!

I’ve done my Monthly Faves project twice before, once in 2009 & again in 2011, and I love it so much I’m doing it again here in 2013. I can’t even tell you how much fun it is to look back on those layouts and see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. It’s like a mini time-capsule of your favorite things from way-back-when.

Here’s how my 2013 Monthly Faves layouts are shaping up so far this year…

I’ve written before about why I believe everyone should scrap a Faves layout but here’s the cliff-notes version:

Because scrapbooking lists is fun
Because you don’t remember nearly as much as you swear you do
Because it captures an easy snapshot of your life at the moment
Because it’s the easiest All About Me layout you’ll ever do. Seriously.

And this year I wanted to make it even easier for you to creatively capture your faves. So on the last(ish) Saturday of every month, I’ll be releasing that month’s Faves layout as a new Sweet Single template. Which should give you plenty of time to capture your Faves for that month before the new month arrives.

Which brings me to this week’s release…

FAVE-O-RITES 2013: December Faves

This week’s release is the final FAVE-O-RITES Sweet Single digital scrapbooking template of the year, FAVE-O-RITES 2013: December Faves. With it being the Christmas season, I thought it made sense to go a little festive with the design this month…

Here’s a bigger look at my 2013 December Faves layout that inspired this template. As you can see, my faves list is super random, which is exactly what I love! It’s not something you have to stress out over: make a list of 10 things, scrap it and boom, you’ve captured an easy snapshot of YOU in your scrapbooks. Just think how much fun it’ll be for you or your kids & grandkids to look back on one day!

Team Awesome Inspiration

Of course my team had a ton of fun this month scrapbooking their own take on the December Faves:

Bundle & Save on the Faves!

Since this is last FAVE-O-RITES release of 2013, I’ve also put together two bundle packs. If you’re looking to round out your Faves template collection, these are the way to go. First up, the FAVE-O-RITES 2013 Half Pack for Jul thru Dec…

And then the complete FAVE-O-RITES 2013 Collection which includes all 12 Faves templates from this year. If you missed out on the Faves in 2013 and are thinking of doing it for 2014, these are a GREAT way to jumpstart your project.

New Release Discount: SAVE 20% thru Saturday

And of course, as with every Sweet Shoppe Saturday, you can SAVE 20% off all new releases thru Saturday, include the December Faves template and both Faves bundle packs.

Want to save 20% off this weekend?

Pick up FAVE-O-RITES 2013: December Faves here today!

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Holiday Faves 2013 | Intro & Foundation Pages

POSTED ON December 6, 2013 IN Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves 2013

Welcome to Holiday Faves 2013.

Here’s what I love about the Holiday Faves: if I were doing a normal December Daily “capture something every day” type of album, I’d probably be panicking right now because it’s December 6th and I’m just starting my album which means I’d already be six days behind. But with Holiday Faves, I know I’m exactly right where I need to be and it’s going to be perfectly fine. No stress. No guilt.

If you’re new to Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves is my solution for creating a more simple and do-able holiday mini album. After several years of failed attempts at December Daily, I realized I needed a solution that was a better for me and my lifestyle. So back in 2011, I made a list of all my likes & dislikes about December Daily. The list went a little something like this:

What I Loved About December Daily:

Collecting memorabilia – LOVED picking up bits & pieces of life throughout the season knowing I already had a home for them
Mini Album– Loved the mini album size and I especially loved being able to flip through the pages everyday. An 8×8 all digital album is definitely not for me.
Photos – Loved printing photos at home to include in my album right away

What I Didn’t Love About December Daily:

The Daily-ness – As much as I love the concept, I’ve realized that a page a day is WAY too much work for me. I want to be able to skip a day and not feel guilty or even close the album on the 26th and call it done.
Mixed Sized Pages – While I love the look of the pages showing behind each other, the mishmash of sizes made it too complicated to put together each day.
The Cost – Paper supplies expensive. Plus it made me a little sad to see all the beautiful digi kits out there and not have a reason to use them.
Not As Travel Friendly – Last year we stayed home for Christmas so it was fine but this year we’ll be traveling which means I need an album I can easily take with me on the go.

Based off the list, I came up with a new solution: a 5×7 hybrid mini album complete with foundation pages which I’d print and then fill up with goodness over the Holiday season. Instead of focusing on daily entries like December Daily, my goal would be to capture my top ten favorite things about the holiday season. No worries about keeping up or getting behind, the top ten entires could be added at any time, in any order and hey, if I got to the end of the album and only had 8 or even 5, well I was perfectly content to remove those additional pages and call it done.

And well, considering I’m 2 for 2 completing my Holiday Faves mini albums, I’d say this method is working quite well for me! So I’m forging ahead with a 2013 edition of Holiday Faves – with one little tweak.

This year, instead of sticking with the 5×7-inch size I’ve used the past two years, I’m going with 6×8-inch pages using the Studio Calico Handbook from their Magical line as my album. It’s a four-ring binder which means it will still be easy to add or move pages around and it’s plenty thick enough to hold all the pages as the album grows. The album itself is quite a bit bigger than the 5×7 albums (it’s closer to 7×9 inches) but it should still travel nicely with us when we fly out to visit family.

Holiday Faves 2013 Products

For the foundation of my album, I’m using my Holiday Faves 2013: The Collection templates (which you can purchase here at Sweet Shoppe Designs). One of my reasons for going with the Studio Calico Handbook album this year was I loved the idea of mixing in some additional pocket page protectors into my album, Project Life-style. So the templates include 6×8 mini album templates as well as additional 3×4 & 4×6 card templates.

For my digi goodies, I’m using a combination of Christmas kits by Kristin & Zoe, as seen below. I’m normally primarily a kit scrapbooker, but for this project, I love mixing and matching to give myself more options. I just try to focus on a specific color scheme, in this case red/green/teal/cream/kraft with gold accents, to keep things from getting too crazy.

1. Holiday Faves 2013: The Collection by Nettio Designs; 2. A Christmas Wonderland Bundle by Kristin Cronin-Barrow; 3. Christmas Spirit: Merry & Bright by Zoe Pearn; 4. Life Stories: Christmas by Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Zoe Pearn.

Here’s a look at my foundation pages this year…

Holiday Faves 2013 Foundation Pages

This year’s cover was really simple since the majority of the work had been done for me! Love that! For the window, I rotated and trimmed down a 3×4-inch green polka dot card and added gold 2013 letter stickers. Both are from Kelly Purkey’s December Project Life kit from Simon Says Stamp.

A look at the inside cover page. Can you really go wrong with a grid of delicious digi papers?

A closer look at the cover page. All of these pages were printed at home using my Epson photo printer on Epson Premium Presentation Matte paper. I fully expected I’d run out of ink part way so I was very excited when that didn’t happen!

On the blank page on the left here, I plan to add a Christmas manifesto/why I made this album journal card. The page on the right uses one of my Holiday Faves 2013 templates, but instead of clipping paper to the template strips, I used digital washi tape and ribbon to give it a more crafty feel. I love how it turned out!

Since this is only the foundation of my mini album, none of the pages have been glued together, leaving lots of blank spreads like this. This gives me in the option to add photos or move pages around. Once I design the individual pages, I’ll glue them together to get rid of the blank pages.

A foundation/accent page combo. I love these spreads because I can easily add a single photo or note for a story that maybe isn’t quite “fave” status. Right now I’m thinking I may go with a holiday bucket list on the left page here.

My first Holiday Faves journal card spread. I like to swap these left and right throughout the album as well as leave some blank pages for full-size photos.

I’ll be handwriting all of my journaling so this year I got smart and added optional journaling lines to the Holiday Faves templates. Hopefully now my left-handed journaling won’t end up all slanty.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my reasons for choosing the Studio Calico Handbook album is it includes 6×8 divided page protectors as part of the album. I am planning to include a few of these in my album to capture some of the more general themed stories, like our holiday decorations or traditions. I like to reserve my faves for some of the more unique moments that don’t happen every year so this gives me a good way to include those stories still.

For now I’ve kept all of the page protectors empty except for my template cards, but I plan to add accents and photos to them as my album comes together.

Holiday Faves No. 2, you can see this time it’s on the right (and the digital details are flipped to match that so nothing gets cut off by the album holes.

Holiday Fave No. 3…

Another holiday themed pocket protector, this time Holiday Traditions…

The gold hello December on the right side of the page is from Mari’s Twenty Five Days of Joy kit. It comes in silver but I recolored it gold using the Hue/Saturation slider in Photoshop.

Holiday Fave No. 4…

Holiday Fave No. 5…

This Holiday Traveling card spread will mark the dividing line between Christmas in Texas and Christmas in California. I plan to move it wherever I happen to be in the album once we leave.

Holiday Fave No 6…

Another pocket page spread (this time the back of the card)…

I’m planning to use this spread to right about the gifts we buy everyone…

This page on the right is actually a pocket I made. To make the pocket, I printed the top and bottom half of the page template separately, leaving the bottom half of the blue paper page blank to save ink, and then trimmed and stapled the two halves together. The gold trim is glitter tape from Kelly Purkey’s December Project Life kit. I plan to slip a list of the gifts we buy for family into the pocket.

Holiday Fave No. 7…

Holiday Fave No. 8…

Holiday Fave No. 9…

Holiday Fave No. 10…

Final page in the album. I’ve included all the additional page protectors at the back of the album. I figure I can use them to add additional photos/accents later and just remove the ones I don’t use once I’m finished.

A closer peek at the final page…

And that’s my Holiday Faves 2013 album so far! My goal with the foundation pages is always to give myself a guide for my album while still giving me plenty of options for moving pages and adding details and photos. I’m really excited to see how this year’s album comes together!

Have any questions for me about my Holiday Faves album? Feel free to ask them in the comments below! And if you’re using the Holiday Faves 2013 templates for your own album this year, I’d love to see what you’re planning so feel free to link me up below as well!

Want to join in the Holiday Faves 2013 fun? Pick up your own copy of the Holiday Faves 2013: The Collection templates here.

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New Release | Holiday Faves 2013 Collection

POSTED ON November 23, 2013 IN Holiday Faves, Holiday Faves 2013, Shop News & Releases

Woohoo, it is time for another Sweet Shoppe Saturday!

I am so excited about this week’s new release as it represents the return of one my most favorite yearly projects, Holiday Faves!

Started back in 2011, Holiday Faves is my solution for creating a stress-free holiday mini album. No worrying about capturing daily details or getting behind, the focus here is on capturing your top ten favorite things from the 2013 holiday season. And best of all, you can design your album digitally or go hybrid using all the digi goodies you already know and love.

This year I’ll be creating a hybrid mini album using a 6×8 pocket page protector 3-ring album so I’ve decided three holiday-tastic goodies for doing just that…

Holiday Faves 2013: 6×8 Mini Album

First up is the granddaddy of the Holiday Faves 2013 products, the Holiday Faves 2013: 6×8 Mini Album templates. These 6×8-inch layered templates include 21 holiday themed designs as well as two sets of numbered journaling cards in Holiday Faves & Holiday Memories wording. Simply choose the option that best fits your stories.

These 6×8-inch templates form the foundation of your album and include four page options: Foundation Pages, Accent Pages, Journaling Pages & Photo Pages. Simply mix and match them at will to create your own custom Holiday Faves or Holiday Memories mini album!

Holiday Faves 2013: 4×6 Journal Cards

The second product in the Holiday Faves 2013 collection are the Holiday Faves 2013: 4×6 Journal Cards. These 4×6-inch layered journal cards are a great way to add additional stories to your Holiday Faves mini album or your existing pocket scrapbooks.

Holiday Faves 2013: 3×4 Accent Cards

The third and final product in the Holiday Faves 2013 collection are the Holiday Faves 2013: 3×4 Accent Cards. These layered 3×4 cards add the perfect customizable punch to any digital layout, mini album or pocket scrapbook.

Here’s a peek at what the cards look like when customized with digi goodies. Aren’t they adorable?

Buy the Bundle & Save!

Of course, if you can’t decide on just one product, you can pick up the complete Holiday Faves 2013 collection and get all three Holiday Faves 2013 products for one great price. With over 90 templates included in the set, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from.

Team Awesome Inspiration

Of course, Team Awesome will also be playing along with the Holiday Faves this year so here’s a peek at how a few of them are using the Holiday Faves 2013 goodies so far…

SAVE 20% OFF thru Saturday

As with every Sweet Shoppe Saturday, you can save 20% off all new releases thru Saturday.

Want to save 20% off this weekend AND join in the Holiday Faves fun?

Pick up Holiday Faves 2013: The Complete Collection today!

Well that’s it from me today! Stay tuned as later this week I’ll be sharing more details about how I’m using the Holiday Faves 2013 templates to create my own Holiday Faves hybrid mini album. This is by far one of my favorite projects of the year so I hope you’ll join me in the holiday scrapbooking fun!

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New Release | FAVE-O-RITES 2013: October Faves

POSTED ON October 26, 2013 IN Monthly Faves 2013, Shop News & Releases, the Faves

Happy Sweet Shoppe Saturday everyone! Are you ready for some NEW goodies? This week’s release heralds month number TEN of one of my absolute FAVE (pun-intended) scrapbooking projects: the Monthly Faves! Can you believe we’re down to the final quarter of the year already?

Here’s how my 2013 Monthly Faves layouts are shaping up so far this year…

I’ve written before about why I believe everyone should scrap a Faves layout but here’s the cliff-notes version:

Because scrapbooking lists is fun
Because you don’t remember nearly as much as you swear you do
Because it captures an easy snapshot of your life at the moment
Because it’s the easiest All About Me layout you’ll ever do. Seriously.

Which brings me to this week’s release…

FAVE-O-RITES 2013: October Faves

This week’s release is the tenth FAVE-O-RITES Sweet Single digital scrapbooking template of the year, FAVE-O-RITES 2013: October Faves. I’ve been digging circles lately so I hope you love this circ-tacular design as much as do!

Here’s a bigger look at my 2013 October Faves layout that inspired this template. As you can see, my faves list is super random, which is exactly what I love! It’s not something you have to stress out over: make a list of 10 things, scrap it and boom, you’ve captured an easy snapshot of YOU in your scrapbooks. Just think how much fun it’ll be for you or your kids & grandkids to look back on one day!

Team Awesome Inspiration

Of course my team had a ton of fun this month scrapbooking their own take on the October Faves. As you can see these templates are great for any kind of faves, not just monthly ones…

New Release Discount: SAVE 20% thru Saturday

And of course, as with every Sweet Shoppe Saturday, you can save 20% off all new releases thru Saturday.

Want to save 20% off this weekend?

Pick up FAVE-O-RITES 2013: October Faves here today!

Well, that’s it from me today! I’ll be back next week for one of our biggest holidays of the year, Digital Scrapbooking Day! See you then!

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