Imagine the Joy!!!

Most days I need inspiration to meet my goals. And then there are those days when nothing helps. But on a rare occasion, I wake up and know just what I'm going to do! Yesterday was one of those days. Not only did I finish my Hope Flies necklace, I finished my diet journal.

YIKES!!! Did I just say "diet"??? That 4-letter word that no one likes to hear? Well...one of my goals for 2008 is to imagine the joy of being 20 pounds lighter. OK....not my goal weight...just 20 pounds off this year. I'm definitely a yo-yo dieter, bouncing up and down with my weight. I took off 20 pounds last year and if I can do the same this year...I'll be on the track to healthier living.

It seems I am most successful at this if I keep a journal of what I eat every day....and if I can get in 10,000 steps a day. So far this year, I am not doing so great. So I woke up inspired to take that old calendar from 2006 apart and use the elements from it that I love, adding more and adding stamps. The end result:



Most of this is Basic Gray paper, some papers I found in Paris in 2006, and a whole lot of Creative-Crystals These are hot-fix Swarovski crystals and I just cannot get enough of them. I adorned the lady's hat with them, put 6 coming down from the Star of David (for the 6 points in the star) and 2 on the sign "Celebrate Life". Below that are the words "Imagine the Joy"....what I will focus on thinking about each time I want a slice of cheesecake in 2008!

Down the right side....five hundred twentyfive thousand....the number of minutes in 2008....the amount of time I have to meet my goal. Diecut with Spellbinders Playful font, covered with Ranger's Glossy Accents. The stamps are all Rhonna Farrer by Autumn Leaves or Hero Arts Clear Designs. The 2 layer diecut "hat" in the upper left hand corner and the Star of DAvid are also Spellbinders dies.

The back of the journal is just a hodgepodge....but I think by layering stamps on top of old papers, I've come up with a journal that I can take anywhere. Inside....a diet journal I picked up at Borders....you know, nothing is safe when it gets into my hands!!!



Hmmm.....perhaps I should start carrying this with me to the restaurants we frequent. Think if I have to write it down before I eat it...it will slow me down?

If you are laughing about now...you know me well!!!

Life Interrupted

I keep saying that I'm going to make a 2008 calendar....but things keep cropping up that interrupt my play time. So I've decided to take a couple of shortcuts. The first is to share a calendar that I made in 2006. This was so much fun to make! And then I'm going to take it apart and use bits and pieces from it for my new calendar:



There's a whole lot to look at on just the outside cover. The theme was "Moments" and I used Spellbinders fonts to diecut the words across the top and the year. There's even a Shazzam die in the ribbons....see the "M"? I inked it to match the calendar.

This was the year I went to London, Chesterfield and Paris. What a fun trip!



And lots of little charms and such tied into the ribbons as well.



On the pages and between the pages....about 50 tiny little pockets to tuck notes and moments down into. Even some full sized file folder pockets:



I made some of the pockets....some were purchased:





The calendars were created in Excel, printed on photo paper, and stippled with ink to match the background paper colors.

My goal was to put samples of new dies on each page.....but I was just so busy....I couldn't keep up with it!





And how easy to make all kinds of vellum pockets!



and use premade manilla envelopes from the office supply store....can we say "cheap"?



And of course, 7Gypsies has tons of pockets and tags to offer:



Big and small....they really were fun to make!



The calendar was actually too big to carry around. Almost 8" x 6" x 3" thick. So rather than use it....it was on display most of the year. I carried it with me as I walked the floor at CHA....certainly got the attention of many who passed by. But just not practical!

And yes...it did take me about a week to make. Most of that was spent editing and designing the actual templates in Excel. So with that task behind me, it should go much quicker this time....if I can just get to my studio! It will be fun to see how I can alter this calendar into a new size (5" x 5") re-ink the pockets to match my new color scheme, add art dolls...and just play.