I printed out 2 copies of the words from a Google Docs file. I had them in 6 rows of 5 words on a page in a table with the line size set to zero. Then I punched them out into heart shapes. I used an opened paperclip to make a hook and used double-sided tape to adhere the 2 copies of each word together
Today was the day I (with help from Flora) finished and delivered (with Stacey and Diana on our way to a virtual golf night – 10 of us playing tonight at Golf-o-Max) a 65th birthday gift for our friend, Karen. Taking inspiration from an idea that my friend Shelli’s husband had for her 60th birthday, I reached out to Karen’s friends and family to attempt to gather at least 65 things that we love about Karen. I compiled the messages for Karen to open and read one a day. And we assembled then disassembled into 65 chunks a 1000 piece puzzle and packaged them into small decorative boxes from my ever-growing box stash so that Karen can do a 15-16 piece portion of the puzzle every day for the next 65 days. And we portioned a Lego set into 65 envelopes for Karen to assemble a small portion of each day for the next 65 days. In each envelope we also included a word or two (typed onto heart shapes) for Karen to hang on the spring floral stems. So many great words describing all the things we love about Karen were compiled. Maybe you’ll take inspiration from the idea sometime in the future for a special birthday for a special friend or family member?
This wide assortment of decorative boxes that I have been accumulating for years came in handy to hold the sixty-five 15 or 16 piece puzzle sections. Karen will be able to make one section each day for the next 65 days. I told her she can’t open the wrapped box with the puzzle box until after she’s finished the puzzle. Such a wonderful collection of words representing so much of what we love about Karen.I had already sent Karen a birthday card in the mail so I used this card that I had on hand to wish her happy birthday again and to describe a bit about what the gifts were all about.These are the spring stems onto which Karen will be able to hang her word hearts each day.I’ll be able to reuse the envelopes in future card kits after Karen has finished assembling her Lego project. I adhered the hearts using repositionable tape.While the puzzle boxes are numbered, they actually don’t need to be done in order. The pieces within each box go together, but the sections don’t necessarily attached to each other in any specific order.The collection of birthday gifts that we delivered to Karen.
So, lots of craftiness but no progress on my 100DayProject yet today. Actually, I think I’ll count the envelopes I stamped as a 100DayProject activity because I’ll use some of them for envelopes for cards that I’ll make as part of the project (as well as using some for future card kits). I’m now going to watch a few lessons before I head to bed once I get this posted with a few photos.
One and a half cards complete (since I stared Card 15 yesterday) to bring me up to 16 cards in less that 24 days so I’m getting closer to 67%. Still a long way away from 100% progress. Tomorrow I’ll be finally getting out my Gina K Fuse machine to try foiling. I am looking forward to it. I have had the foiling machine for maybe a year now and keep meaning to try but somehow haven’t gotten around to it.
Card 15b
When I got into my craftroom this morning and saw the 2 partially made cards on my worksurface I decided that they were good enough; there was no sense in starting them over for this lesson assignment even though there were some things that I’d like to try if/when I use this technique again. I realize that I’m rather rigid/structured in my card designs, this technique of building up an arrangement with random flower and leaf images is definitely out of my comfort zone. In the end, the black sketching and adding a sentiment seemed to finish the cards off well enough for me. As Gina K likes to say on her crafting videos, it’s better than horrible. I preferred the less bold letters on the sentiment.
I used the same technique on the envelopes, back of card and inside of the card.This card is very similar to the first card, I just used a darker in on the pinky/orange flower on this one.
Card 16
I think I prefer to flowers all to be coloured the same colour.
I was pleased with how these cards came out. I made 2. Actually I stamped the cards and envelopes to make 6 of them. I am sort of thinking ahead to the 6th Lesson in the Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards class which has to do with packaging cards. However, I ended up putting the other 4 cardbase / envelope sets aside because I really should progress on my lessons rather than make extra of each card. Although I really do like colouring with my watercolour markers and had hoped to make a set coloured with each colour. I tried a multicoloured bunch but think I prefer the single colour per bunch.
The dark colour near the bottom was definitely too dark, I would have preferred to have repeated a colour. I think it is nice to have different coloured bunches, but I’m not sure if I like the different colours within one bunch.
Mystery Monday
I haven’t quite decided my theme for today. As I did the shorter loop with Luna on the very icy path, I was considering misstep as a theme. I was really trying hard not to take a wrong step and fall down and break a wrist. Grippers would definitely have been handy but they are all up at the cottage. Luckily my only misstep was stepping off the trail onto a grippier snowy area and getting a soaker. And so I have on a new pair of socks. It is a Mail It Monday so I plan to write a few cards. If you don’t like mailing cards you could also merely make it a Message Monday and send an unexpected Just Thinking of You message to a friend or family member. Maybe I should rename my Mail It Monday? But a bit of breakfast and 8:00-10:00 Pickleball followed by a lunch with some friends await so it’s time to pause my writing. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I’m not quite sure which buttons I pressed on my phone today when I was sending this photo to a few friends as a ‘Memories on Monday’ text message, but the effect is interesting. You’ll have to imagine them sitting on our dock boat with the lake in the background.
I haven’t written or mailed any cards yet, but I did make my Card 16 as well as finished my Card 15b. And I sent out some Memories on Monday photos to some friends as text messages when I had to sit out a few times in Pickleball. Our numbers seem to have risen again and there were lots of spares today. Roland has been scanning in a few old photos so I have one of those to share as a Memory on Monday as well.
One of the photos from him parents’ negatives that Roland has been scanning recently. Cutting our ‘Congratulations on your Engagement’ cake at Roland’s parents’ house about 30 years ago. We got engaged on a Marchish? kakaying trip in Belize and got married in August of the same year. As Stefan commented when he saw the photo, purple squad. Memories on Monday is a good day for this memory to have surfaced.
Roland and I played on opposite teams at 7:45 curling tonight. His team creamed our team. They seemed to get almost all of their shots. We seemed to miss almost all of our shots. Thus the 12-1 score for the 6 end game. But it was still very enjoyable.
No progress to report on my 100DayProject although I might try to sneak in a wee bit of work on it before going to bed. But it is 10:10 as I write this because I’m just back from book club where we celebrated pi day a bit early. We enjoyed quiche, chicken pot pie, apple pie and a berry pie. I wish we had had a family tradition of having a pie meal on pi day every year. Heidi was mentioned that she never gets to celebrate pi day with her math students because it falls on March Break so I think she’ll be happy if we develop a new family pie on pi day tradition.
It’s now10:47 and I did take about 10 minutes (or was it more?) to try out the Garden Delights stamp set. I just realized that there is actually a few more small stamp layers to fill in the centre of the flowers but that will have to wait until tomorrow to add it. I haven’t decided if I’ll go for the darker two shades of green or for the lighter 2. And I haven’t decided if I’ll do a mix of the two types of flowers or just the one type. I’m leaning towards just using one for simplicity, although I think I will include some of the second variety of leaves. Tomorrow’s 8:00 swim is now in as much jeapordy as my Tuesday one (which I skipped). Fingers crossed I get up when my alarm goes off at 7:00 despite me being so poor at adjusting to the time change.
It’s beginning to look a lot like I’ve at least started my Card 10!This is definitely not a card that I’ve made, but rather it is thefeatured project for my Altenew All About Layer 4 Class 4 which I will be using as my design inspiration for my Card 10 of my 100DayProject. I had better pick up the pace since it is now Day 18
I received my Advent Calendar on December 6 and did the first card on December 9th. While I’m currently only batting 500 on my 100DayProject, I am making much faster progress on my daily Altenew card quest than I had on my daily Advent Calendar quest.
Wide Open Wednesday
It took me until the turn around point of this mornings walk for me to decide my theme for today. The stream was finally wide open after having been covered in snow and ice for many months. It was also a theme quite consistent with a thought after I set out when I figured out why the toes of my socks were wet: while they weren’t wide open, there was certainly an opening in the toes of my boots where the soles meets the upper part.
On my way back home I considered what I would do if I had a wide open day. It’s definitely a good thing to think about every once in a while. How much of the things you do every day would you want to include if you started your day with no routine or any commitments? If your ideal wide open day would vary tremendously from your typical day I think its definitely time to start thinking about making some small tweaks each week to better align your typical day with your ideal day.
I definitely had a good day. I enlisted Heidi’s help in tackling the disasterous kitchen rather than just doing it myself. There is still lots more disaster areas to tackle on the main floor, but somehow the kitchen always takes priority and all of my energy. Having some help is less draining for sure. It’s not what she was planning for the middle day of her March Break I’m sure. Here’s to hoping I can tackle some my disasterous desk in the family room tomorrow. I had a crafternoon at the Dementia Society with 2 of my Crafty Crew volunteers and we got a very good start on making 2 sets of cards. I decided that I really like the two cards I made with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar bee dies (back on January 5 and February 21 which were doors 6 and door 18) so we’re making them for my online class to do.
I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the sequins from door 18 along with the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.
I am already very late for bed and haven’t done a thing on my 100DayProject yet today. I didn’t even get to colour just one layer on the flowers that I will be using on Card 8. And tomorrow is looking pretty full as well. But fingers crossed I will make a bit of progress tomorrow.
Struggle versus Satisfaction
As I walked Luna in this morning, I pondered the sight and sounds that we can soak in when we walk in silence. I go through phases of listening to podcasts on my walk or not listening to anything. Lately I have been preferring the silence. This allows me to better appreciate the sounds and the sights of the forest as I walk: the crunch and squeaking of my boots on the snow and the ice, the variety of bird calls, the ducks moving about, likely trying to figure out their nesting sites, the jingle of Luna’s tags as she rolls around on the ground making snow angels. The surface is back to getting icy again. I was reminded how the pressure of our footsteps can transform a grippy snowy surface into a slippery, icy surface, especially when there is the addition of warmer temperatures and/or bright sunshine. I thought of how beautiful diamonds are created only from being under tremendous pressure. Which led me to thinking about the pressure I’m feeling because I don’t yet have my kits together.
I am struggling a bit with being side-tracked rather than staying focused. I’m working (or not) through the struggle of reestablishing habits, sometimes sticking with the habit and sometimes skipping a day (or more). I’m reminded of a saying I recently heard about it being easy to do hard things but hard to do easy things. Why is that? Perhaps its because we get more satisfaction from the struggle of doing hard things that we get from doing easy things.
So, I’m recommitting myself to my habits. I’m recommitting myself to the struggle of getting my kits ready and delivered today. So, enough writing, it’s time to tackle today’s tasks.
Now a few words at 10:45 p.m. just before I post this: Phew, I did finish the card kits. Now I just have to get them delivered tomorrow so my Creative Cards and Crafts program participants will have their kits in time for Tuesday morning’s 10:30 online class. My one participant who is in the UK will get her kits late as usual. I need to get them packaged up into an envelope and dropped off at the post office.
I am feeling quite happy and satisfied that I completed the task after quite a bit of struggle (and a lot of time!). It is so nice that they’ll have the supplies they need for 5 upcoming classes. That just leaves 6 more classes that need to be prepared before I take July and August off. Hopefully I can have all 6 kits created and ready to deliver by Monday 5 May. And, more importantly, I know that on Tuesday morning when I am leading the class, I will feel even more satisfaction that I always take the time to make and deliver the kits. Because we always have such a fun time connecting while we create.
I don’t yet have anything figured out for tomorrow afternoon’s in-person Card Crew session which starts at 1:00, but I’ll figure that out tomorrow morning after Pickleball.
And it’s now 11:45 and I’m still up. But, I did get an email off to the program coordinators at the Dementia Society to let them know of the classes that I’ll need to reschedule since I’ll be away for a few weeks in May. Why does something that I feel should take 5-10 minutes take 50-60 minutes. Schedule and logistics changes always take me much longer than I’d like, that’s probably why I put them off – because I know they never take just a few minutes as I would hope.
I made just a wee bit more progress on my Day 3 Altenew card (which will feature Spellbinders door 23) and and barely got started on my Day 4 Altenew card (it will be unlikely that whatever is behind door 24 happens to go with what I am planning for my Day 4 Altenew card but who knows, maybe I’ll be able to have a combined project again).
But I did get quite a bit of progress made on a card kit for my online cardmaking classes that I give for the Dementia Society. And, more importantly I had a great lunch and spent the crafternoon with Nancy and Eleanor. It is so nice to be able to visit with friends while working on my class kits. I equally enjoy seeing what projects my friends are working on and having them help me on my class projects.
And I played Pickleball in the morning and went with 6 other friends to play golf on a simulator. And so there was very little writing and very little 100DayProject progress.
Waiting Wednesday
Are you someone that tends to make others wait? Or do you feel like you tend to be the one waiting for others?
Luna had to wait for me this morning while I put out the garbage. I had to wait for her while she makes her snow angels at random spots along our walking route. She has to wait for me while I pause at the turn around point on our walk. I like to slow down for a minute at the small wooden bridge over the stream by the train bridge. This is usually my first ‘take 5’ of the day. I try to take 5 one-minute breaks each day where I practice being mindful, I breathe slowly and deeply for 5 breaths and try to pay attention to what is going on around me (my 5 senses) and within me (my thoughts, sensations, emotions, feelings). I have a bit of a mantra that I say with for those breaths: in, out; up, down; through, around; calm, ease; expand, relax. And, Luna has to wait for me then.
I have lots more thoughts on the topic of waiting but rather than having all this written in the morning, I am writing at 9:30 which is already past my bedtime. So I will have to . And you’ll have to wait until I have time to add my further thoughts on topic some other day.
Suffice it to say that I feel that I make others wait a lot more for me than I have to wait on others. And, that is one of the things that I’m working to improve.
I do have a few other cards from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar to share but that will have to wait as well.
Creative Treats 