Project Life: Weeks 17 and 28 (with a GIVE AWAY)

I'm sure you've already heard about this little thing Katrina and I have been working on:
Project Life Planned

Katrina and I teamed up with a great new kit club to offer you some inspiration and a give away.

Gossamer Blue (http://www.gossamerblue.com) is a new monthly kit club dedicated to inspiring and motivating memory keepers and crafters alike. Each main kit is well coordinated with a mix of products from multiple manufacturers, and also includes Lori Whitlock (http://www.loriwhitlock.com/blog/) die cutting and digital elements. 

August 2012, Goassamer Blue, Bits & Pieces Add-on

Several add-ons will be available each month including a Bits & Pieces add-on that is perfect for Project Lifers and card makers. This first Bits & Pieces add-on includes 8x8 papers, die cuts, journaling cards, tags and stickers. The colors in the August Bits & Pieces Add-on are warm oranges, pinks, blues and yellows and can be used with a variety of themes from birthdays to vacations to every day.

Here's what you can do:

1. Visit Gossamer Blue's blog for a chance to win a one month subscription to Project Life Planned (along with a bunch of other great prizes!).

2. Subscribe to Project Life Planned and visit our blog for a chance to win Gossamer Blue's August Bits & Pieces Add-on.

Here is what I created with the add-on.

Hello,

Hello, new morning pleasure. Wish I could say it's a morning routine but the process is too time consuming to be anything besides a special treat (or an incentive to get up 15 minutes earlier).

Hello, 15 minute cleaning plan. The directions are simple. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Clean whatever you can during that 15 minutes. Resume regular life. Repeat process daily.

Hello, reminding myself I have choices. Everything I do is a choice. There is always an alternative. I'm not being forced to do anything.

Hello to finding my summer to-do list. Made in June and completely forgotten about! I will try to share later this week.

Hello, Thanksgiving. I know. Turkey is months away, but I love it and the traditions Angie and I have developed around it.

Hello, Project Life. I'm only 12 weeks behind!! All of my supplies (including BRAND NEW plastics) have found a permanent home on my kitchen table. More about that tomorrow. . .

Cooking for One

alternate titles:
"Choking Back Tears at the Meat Counter"
"Crying Over Dinner"

I picked this up before I was one. I didn't open it up until I was one. 

Reading about someone else's quest to learn to cook for and with a family most definitely did not lift my spirits. 

There *may* be some tear-stained pages.

I love making dinner. Everything about it - choosing recipes, shopping, chopping, actually cooking, and sitting down to eat. I've developed little rituals that surround each part of it.

Any night that we were both home, we would eat together in a very formal way - sitting at the table, television turned off, real plates, and serving dishes. Sometimes he helped me cook, and he was almost always responsible for the clean up.

I enjoyed finding things he'd like to eat. He made a point to compliment me. He even said he missed my cooking when I first moved out.

Cooking for someone else isn't part of my daily life anymore.

I'm struggling to adjust to that.

Everything related to cooking makes me very sad. An exchange at the meat counter almost brought me to tears,
Butcher: "You want two of these, right?"
Me: "No. It's just me."

Again, I'm really struggling to cooking for one. 

Cooking and dinner are things I enjoy. Even if they are things I will now enjoy by myself sometimes, they are still things I enjoy.

So, I'm striving to develop some new routines.

Where do I find recipes for one?
How do I shop and cook in a way that doesn't consume my weekly food budget in a single meal?
Why should I cook when I'd rather sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat cereal?
What are some ways to make less of a mess when I cook? (I hate the clean up.)

Project Life: Week 14

According to my oh-so-scientific calculations, the week of July 23 - 30 is Week 30 of 2012. 

So, I should be sharing Week 30 of Project Life. 

Am I?

No.

I'm sharing Week 14.

I'm halfway through summer vacation and am posting something about spring break.

In my defense, I do have three other weeks finished and ready to share soon.

Writer's Block

In case the constant stream of "Hello," "Favorites," and "Currents" posts haven't tipped you off -

I'm lacking in blogging inspiration lately.

Maybe my blog is having an identity crisis.
Maybe that's indicative of its author having an identity crisis!


Maybe I'm afraid of saying what I really want / need to say right now in a public forum.

Maybe I'm afraid of becoming "that woman" who complains endlessly about her divorce or expounds upon her self-discovery.

Maybe I'm lacking motivation.

Maybe some of my documenting needs are being met by Project Life.

Maybe I've run out of things to say.
That doesn't seem like the case.

Hello,

Image used from The Tao of Dana.

Hello to recommitting to reading. I have started lots of things lately - including Art of Fielding (Angie - read this!), Gone Girl, Imagine: How Creativity Works (Katrina - read this!), and This Is Not the Story You Think It Is - and finished very little. I will work on that by reading before bed instead of watching Friends re-runs.

Hello to thinking about fall - particularly an autumn wardrobe.

Hello to a new lamp for my bedside table. This girl is ecstatic to no longer need to incorporate nature into her decor plans.

Hello to considering whether my finances will allow a late-summer get-away. I'm not accustomed to having to think so much about the financial piece of anything.

Hello to less eating out. I bought breakfast and lunch food for the week. Plus, I need to start cooking for myself again. Maybe a cookbook - Dinner for One - will come out of this phase in my life. An entire chapter may be devoted to mooching meals off other people; that seems to be one of my go-to strategies. Thanks to everyone who has fed me recently.


Hello to using Momento to think about Project Life every day. In addition, I'm going to be sure to collect one "thing" every day this week. I've fallen out of that habit.

Stole the idea for "Hello Monday" from Katrina who Stole it from Lisa Leonard.

Note. Stole is an word I use in the most loving way possible.

Thank / Punch

Today I need to pick myself up, get dressed, and actually do something.

This idea, which often goes around in email between a few certain people, seemed like a place to start.

Saw this in the CB2 catalog recently. LOVE it. DO NOT love the price tag.

What I'm Thankful For:
My People. Enough said.
Mantras and pep talks.
Thinking of possibilities.


What I'd Like to Punch:
Putting clothes away - a chore I hate.
Feeling out of control.
Mosquito bites.

Favorites

A little worried that this is becoming the place where I cope with the d-word. Not wanting that part of my experience to define me. Instead, looking for something mindless to say today.

Drink:

Non-Alcoholic Hot: Honey Latte

Non-Alchoholic Cold: Iced tea - black, no sweetener

Alcoholic: Red Wine

Mascara:

Mac X Mascara (black)

Cheese:

Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

Wait.

Bellavitano - Espresso.

80s movie:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Breakfast:

Sugar cereal including Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cap'n Crunch with Berries, or Cookie Crisp.

Time waster:

Bejeweled Blitz

Solution to depression:

Yoga pants and a long, long nap.

Emergency meal:

Chinese take-out.

Chore:

Meal planning and grocery shopping

Idea stolen from The Pickards - found through a Google Search.

Hello,

Hello, me. Messy hair. Questionable skin. Shiny nose. Jiggly parts. Untamed brows. No make-up. Me.

Hello, failure. I'm behind on emails. I never started the meditation practice. I don't exercise. I hoard paper and Thickers. I ate McNuggets, Dr. Pepper, and every fry in the bag for lunch today.

Hello, distraction. I watched two episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians today. Nothing makes my problems seem less significant than seeing Scott Disick becoming Lord Disick. Or listening to Robert Kardashian whine about his failed business plan. Did you know he was going to get rich(er) designing a line of socks?

Hello, crying a lot today.

Hello, giving myself some space. It's okay to say no, to change my mind, to take care of myself.

Hello, friends. Someone asked me today if I had supportive friends. I don't think I smiled bigger at any other time recently. I am going to commit to writing a list of all the ways I've been helped lately. Counting my blessings, I guess.

Stole the idea for "Hello Monday" from Katrina who Stole it from Lisa Leonard.

Note. Stole is an word I use in the most loving way possible.

Hello,

Found on Pinterest. Pinned from here.

Hello to starting fresh, reclaiming, conducting myself with dignity, and looking for opportunity. 

Hello to learning new things. I changed the filter in my air conditioner last night. Later this week, I will mow my own lawn.

Hello, Friends. My life is full of people who care about me, make me laugh, get furious on my behalf, think of me, and encourage me. Really. I cannot express how humbled I am to be loved and protected by my people.

Hello to creating space. I am committed to clearing the clutter out of house. Living away from my house for several months made me realize how many things I have that I can easily life without. It's time to purge and time to commit to not collecting more stuff.

Hello to turning off the television. I need the quiet. I will try to remember to choose music or silence instead of television as background noise. I know I just said I didn't need / want stuff, but one of these would really help me listen to music instead of television.

Hello to meditation? I didn't say that with much confidence and haven't thought in much detail about the idea. My natural tendency is to "Just keep on swimming" - to steal a line from Dory. I wonder what it might feel like to leave time and space in my life to be still and quiet. I signed up for Meditation Revolution with Katrina.

Hello to a triumphant return to Project Life! More to come about that. . .

Stole the idea for "Hello Monday" from Katrina who stole it from Lisa Leonard.

Note. Stole is an word I use in the most loving way possible.

What I Want to Remember. . . Costa Rica

Here are the moments from my trip to Costa Rica that I'd like to save. If I could, I would put each one in its own bottle and save it for a time when reliving it would make me reality just a little bit more tolerable.

Moment 1:
Infinity pool. Mountain. Ocean. Blue Sky. Swim up bar. Warm sunshine. Cool water. Just the feeling of all the details together. Total perfection. To be remembered in the dead of winter when I am shoveling snow drifts from my driveway in the howling wind and biting cold.

Moment 2:
While sitting in the pool overlooking the ocean, I spotted some trees that would be perfect for hammocks. I asked the bartender if that was a possibility. He magically produced and hung hammocks. I sat soaking sun, reading, listening to the waves, dozing, and indulging. To be remembered during a particularly stressful meeting about a topic I do not want to talk about with people who completely annoy me.

Moment 3:
The house we stayed at in the rainforest (despite it's many decor faults) had a patio with an incredible view. Coffee was drank here. Conversation about books and work and life were had here. It was here that I was most in awe of and inspired by the company I was so fortunate to share this trip with. To be remembered when I'm feeling uninspired or lonely.

Moment 4:
I sat in hot springs. I saw a volcano. I enjoyed a hot stone massage in the jungle. To be remembered at a time when I am feeling sorry for myself, thinking my life is overly difficult.

Moment 5:

The end of vacation feeling - the one where you feel tired, are ready to burrow into your own bed, almost cry at the thought of leaving vacation behind and returning to reality, hug your friend tightly at the airport, cannot wait to plan your next trip. It's a strange feeling - bittersweet, hopeful, nostalgic, anxious. Not sure yet when this is best remembered.

The Details
Accommodations:
Punta Islita
Arenal Springs Villas by the Lake
Hilton Garden Inn, Liberia

Excursions:
Arenal Hanging Bridges
Tabacon

On another visit:
Hotel Mystica
El Silencio Lodge
La Fortuna Falls