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Wow! It's a little embarrassing that I haven't updated my Weekly Creativity Challenge for 3 months! It’s not that I haven’t been creative; it simply is that my blog took a backseat to school, my online classes, my CTMH club, and my sick kitties. I’m on winter break now, so I’m going to get back into the swing of posting.
9/20-26 ~ Complete the Telling Stories Deeply and the Learn Something New Every Day class prompts. Create digi LOs for Learn Something New.
Although I didn’t do any of the Telling Stories lessons, I did manage 10 digi LOs for Learn Something New. I also went on a bit of a digi shopping spree. I’m technically not a digital scrapbooker, but I have purchased a ton of digi elements, papers, PDF files, Etc. over the past few months. Not really sure what that is all about other than the fact that most of the items are $.25 at Designer Digitals…LOL!
Blog ~ Post digi LOs. Blog “The Great Escape” story!
How is it possible that I STILL haven’t written about “The Great Escape”? Seriously!
CTMH ~ Finish card kit and Twitterpated WOTG.
I finished ½ the card kit and both Twitterpated LOs. I am absolutely in LOVE with those LOs and will post them during break!
I really wanted to get caught up on my digi LOs today, but this was all I was able to finish. I need to spend the rest of the evening exercising and grading papers...fun times!
I rotated the designerdigitals.com template I used yesterday since this LO will be on the facing page. I also included a free pocket from their What's in Your Pocket challenge. I had to reduce the pocket a great deal since the photo of my card had been saved for the internet. That pocket is such a clever design. I can't wait to print out my book when I'm done and see how it looks on the page.
I saw a news segment on the 7th about a woman who reinvented herself by publishing her first novel at 45. I need to reconnect with myself as a writer. Neal and I have spent the past week brainstorming story ideas, and I'm getting really excited about writing again! Learn Something New Every Day is motivating me to write in my journal daily, but I haven't started writing any fiction yet. Perhaps that will be my goal in October after this class is over.
On the 8th, I rediscovered that, in the greater scheme of life, true friendship matters most! I may not get to see Karen or my few close friends very often, but they are always in my heart. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful women in my life! Neal took this photo at our house during a scrapbooking crop the day after my birthday. It is one of my all-time favorites! 
I purchased this template from Digital Designs for $.25 today! I would love to get the entire series of templates, but I can't justify the expense since I'm not really a digital scrapbooker. I guess I'll just keep watching for sales.
These are some self-portraits after my first day of school on the 9th. As I was driving home, I was thinking about the fact that I had a cute new outfit for the first day and no one to take my photo. Well, I wasn't going to let that stop me. LOL! The mirror photo is blurry, but you can still see my cute Eddie Bauer outfit. I'm determined to look more professional this year as I work toward my CTE certification. I have a feeling that Neal is going to be shocked by my clothing purchases this year!
I haven't been online much over the past couple of weeks due to the start of the new school year and Neal's challenging me to stay off my computer! I must admit that I felt a little lost on the days that I didn't turn on my computer. I'm hopelessly addicted; sad but true! What I have determined is that there is no way I can go without a computer two days during the week--I'm okay with one. On the other days, I simply must force myself to use my time more wisely (e.g. limit the amount of time I spend surfing blogs!).
9/6-12 ~ Complete the Telling Stories Deeply and the Learn Something New Every Day class prompts. Create digi LOs for Learn Something New.
I've managed to copy and print all the Telling Stories lessons, but I haven't written anything yet. I have written in my LSNED journal daily and have completed LOs through the 9th. I'm 10 LOs behind, so I need to increase my speed...story of my life. I'm the slowest scrapbooker EVER!
Blog ~ Post digi LOs. Blog “The Great Escape” story!
Digi, yes. Great Escape, no. I really do want to tell that story!
CTMH ~ Set up new club and place order. Send e-mail to change open house date.
Done and done! My club meets on the 28th and we are completing the September Card Kit; it is so cute!
Shimelle's prompt was about what we can learn from our feet. It amazes me how right on target her prompts always seem to be with my life. For instance, Neal and I were watching football and one of the players was carted off with a foot sprain. I was thinking to myself how horrible it would be in everyday life let alone as an athlete, and then I open a prompt about feet! My lesson came this summer when Neal and I hiked up Multnomah Falls. During the entire 4 mile hike, I didn't experience any pain until we were on the way DOWN...my feet were killing me!
Sadly enough, I continue to waste time on the computer. When I first took this class, I ended up with 6 pages about getting off the computer and spending time exercising, enjoying nature or doing something productive. Three years later, I'm still giving myself the same advice...I see a problem here! Neal has challenged me to leave my computer off on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will still have to use the computer at school, but those evenings at home will be spent reading, crafting, Etc. I'm going to try to start tomorrow if I can finish all my school work at school. Wish me luck! 
Neal got a little annoyed with me the other night. After exercising, I said I was going to take a quick shower. Well, our versions of quick showers don't exactly match, and he had to come up and tell me to hurry because dinner was ready. It's a good thing he loves me!
Side note: I am using much more white space on these digi LOs than I do when working traditionally. It is very strange for me. It will be interesting to see how I feel about the pages when they are printed and in a book. 
I had such a busy summer with my online course, travels, and CTMH events that I never started a "To Do" list. Now the summer is over and I realize that I didn't accomplish much around the house. Oh, sure, I did a little cleaning, but I didn't do any big projects. Now I'm back to life as a busy English teacher and will be swamped with grading and meetings. Hopefully my computer ban on Tuesday and Thursdays will motivate me, but I still need to make a list!
Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day class started again on September 1st. I first signed up for this class in September of 2006. That was an incredibly eventful month in my life, and I'm so thankful I was taking her course, because I journaled every day. I didn't, however, finish my daily pages. In fact, I completed the book during Lain's Layout a Day Challenge in May...of THIS year! Yikes! So, my goal for this year is to journal daily and finish my book by early October. I came to the realization last night that I simply don't have time for traditional scrapbooking, so I'm going to go digi for this project. It isn't my first choice, but it is far more realistic at this moment in time. Plus, Shimelle has included some great digi downloads for this class, including PDF files for the LOs. That is going to save me a lot of time.
After taking Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects from Jessica Sprague, I got pretty excited about playing around in Photoshop. In fact, I've downloaded a bunch of free digital designs and have even purchased a digital kit and some embellishments. Now, mind you, I've only ever created two digital LOs in my life! LOL! So, I'm going to use the Learn Something New class to work on my journaling and to hone my digital skills. I'll stick with Shimelle's LOs for the first couple of weeks since school is starting, but then I may try to come up with my own designs.
To save myself some time, I'm using the Ana Reis Designs "I Heart You" kit. I purchased both the paper and embellishment kits because I loved the doodle hearts.
My first page deals with the presentation I gave to our staff about metacognition. I felt good about the presentation but didn't think it was amazing. Throughout the day I was given a lot of positive feedback. My colleagues made me realize that I do a good job and that I should have more confidence. I'm using a horrible photo from a Web 2.0 presentation I gave at a business education conference in May. Yeah...people should NEVER be photographed while they are speaking! 
My learning continued at our school district teacher training on the 2nd. I co-presented a workshop on lesson planning using Project CRISS and then went to a workshop about ways students hook us into power struggles. The presenter talked about being intentional in our emotional lives. Negative thoughts impact everything we do even if we don't say them out loud. This made me think about my health and approaching it from a positive POV (e.g. I'm not trying to lose weight, I'm gaining muscle, tone, and a firm core!).
This is a photo from my classroom in May. The presenter also talked about seeing your most difficult student as your greatest teacher in living an emotionally intentional life. Brilliant!
I have been MIA the past few weeks, because as soon as I finished my online CTE course, I had to start gearing up for the three presentations I gave last week. I didn't get any of my own school work done, so I'm going to have to work very hard in my classroom tomorrow! I decided to use today to get caught up on some of my creative projects.
8/9-15 ~ As I really want to take the Telling Stories Deeply class at BPS, I need to complete my unfinished classes before I enroll for another class. So, I’m going to work on my 52 Card Pick Up class this week. My goal is 2 cards per day starting on Monday.
I didn't look at my 52 Card Pick Up class once, but I did sign up for Telling Stories Deeply. I have done nothing with that class since I have been so busy these past couple of weeks. I need to add it to my challenge list for this week.
Blog ~ Post my LOs from Kyle’s visit and my two cards each day. Blog “The Great Escape” story!
I did post the LOs from Kyle's visit, but I still need to work on "The Great Escape" story. Hmm...I'm sensing an opportunity to double dip with my Telling Stories Deeply class!
CTMH ~ Advertise and prepare for my Christmas card workshop; finish my Leadership projects; complete my card swaps. Yikes! It’s a good thing I’m still on summer vacation.
I finished my card swaps and Christmas card workshop. I still need to finish the Leadership projects.
I'm thinking that I want to archive my "Weekly Creativity Challenges." I wish I would have done this from the beginning. Oh well, I'm doing it now.
7/17-18 ~ Now that my craft room is back in shape, I am going to scrapbook at least 4 layouts for my cruise album! For a bonus challenge, I'm going to use a sketch from 52 Sketches and Inspired Blueprints.
I'm also working on my Shakespeare High Ning this weekend. I need to create a banner in Photoshop and mess with the CSS.
I met the scrapbooking challenges and posted the LOs. Although I did finish my Shakespeare High Ning, I'm not crazy about the banner. I'm sure I'll change it later, but I'm not going to worry about it now.
7/19-25 ~ I need to prepare card kits for Karen's workshop on Wednesday and page kits for Mimi's crop on Saturday. I want to write and upload a couple more stories to my blog, as well.
Again, I accomplished the scrapbooking challenges but didn't add stories to the blog. I have a childhood story that I really want to write--it's on my "to do" list--but I haven't made the time. I'm going to add it to my list for this week!
I completed a double-page spread from this Inspired Blueprints sketch. I spent a lot longer on it than planned, but I really like how it turned out. I don't have a great eye for random brad placement, but I like how it looks on other layouts, so I'll keep practicing. 
All CTMH supplies unless noted:
Cardstock: White Daisy
Textured CS: White Daisy & Dutch Blue
B&T: Tinkerin’ (green) & Laid Back (blue)
Ink: StazOn Black, Clover Meadow, Dutch Blue, Sunny Yellow, Hydrangea
Stickers: Color Ready Alpha (Oxford Caps & Bold)
Stamps: Spot On Backgrounds (D1280), Star Struck (D1237), Circle Around (D1300), Comments (D1359), Connections (D1330), Good Times (B1332)
Pen: My Legacy Writers
Brads: Summer Carnival, Bigger White & Dutch Blue
Other: Coluzzle circle & Fiskars Threading Water punch
My LOAD Challenge is officially over and I did it! I managed to create a layout a day for the entire month of May! It was difficult at times due to my workload at school, but I'm glad that I stuck with it. Now, for the bad news...I got on the scale this morning...not pretty! I will be taking a break from the Internet until I lose the 5 pounds I gained this month. It is amazing how quickly it comes back on when I only exercise once or twice a week. I've got to get back up to my five or six times a week and really increase the intensity of my workouts.
Again, I used a Scenic Route class kit to finish my layouts for today. This was the final day of our Disney Cruise vacation last summer. I wrote that I was disappointed that we didn't go to Disneyland that day, but it really did end up being the perfect way to end our vacation. We walked around the pier and surrounding areas. I got to take a lot of photos, and we simply relaxed and enjoyed each other's company while soaking in the beautiful weather.
Okay, now I'm off to exercise! Wish me luck in shedding these pounds!!!
Woo hoo! I finished my swap card. It may not look like much, but it took a lot more time than I thought it would. I'll put 34 of these in the morning mail.
So, this is a little sneak peek from the new CTMH Idea Book that is being launched on May 1st. This is the Animal Cookies Creative Basics paper. It is so cute. I used the new stamp set Sweet Baby everything but the "UR" which is from the Be True stamp set.
I'm not a card maker, so this was my second attempt at a card for the swap. My first attempt was a total reject! LOL! I'm showing it here simply so you can see the back of the patterned paper. The back of the small flower print is Clover Meadow. I really like the color combination in these papers.
Okay, I'm off to set my creativity challenge for the week.
I made a valiant effort to use the entire Unforgettable level 2 pack, but I still have 4 full sheets of paper and tons of scraps to use. Alas, my new product has arrived, so I'm packing up Unforgettable in order to work on my swap cards. You may not hear from me for a couple days, but make sure you check back this weekend to see a sneak-peek from the new Idea Book! This cute card folio was inspired by a Wonderfully Whimsy tutorial!
This card was inspired by the Mojo Monday Week 82 sketch. I'm not much of a card maker, but I can see that these sketch challenges will help me improve, so I think I may start doing more challenges! Here is the sketch:
So, I spent the afternoon finishing up the Unforgettable Workshop on the Go. I usually don't give myself enough time to make the cards, so I was determined to do it this time. I ended up making two of each and still had a ton of product left over from the workshop kit!
In December of 2006, Neal and I made a pact to write for 1/2 an hour each day. We both started blogs with the goal of posting daily. I failed miserably! My last post dated May 28, 2007, described how excited I was to be a Close To My Heart Consultant. I would like to say that a booming business left no time for blogging, but that isn't the case. I simply overextend myself and something has to give. For the past two years, it has been my websites. I stopped blogging, podcasting, and updating Shakespeare High. My word for 2006-2007 was "Create," and I definitely added more creativity to my life in the form of scrapbooking. My word for 2008 was "Cleanse." I broke my sugar addiction, added exercise to my routine, and lost 45 pounds! I feel better than I have my entire life, and now I know what is important to me. Therefore, my word for 2009 is "Balance." Exercise and creativity are non-negotiable for me now, therefore, I must find balance in other areas of my life. I'm working on giving up some responsibility at school so that I can come back to the passions that give me joy. The goal of this blog is to document my journey and to provide me with an outlet to share my creativity. I'm glad you found me, and I hope you will share in this journey by playing along with my weekly creativity challenges!
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