One Little Word 2015 - January Workshop Prompt

January.  My month of reflection, reevaluation and motivation.  I do this in bits and pieces as life keeps whirling along at high speed, but throughout the month I do spend quite a bit of time thinking about how my life is going, what I like/don't like, and what direction I want it to take in the next year.  Part of that process, for quite a few years now, involves choosing my Word for the Year (you can see the word I selected for this year here) and figuring out how to incorporate that into my every day life.  Last year, in a bid to keep my goals and intentions more present in my daily life I joined the year long online One Little Word workshop - such a great decision!  So I happily joined the workshop again this year.
While I shared most of the layouts resulting from the workshop prompts last year, I don't intend to post quite so many of them here on the blog this year.  However, I did want to start out the year by putting it out there - making myself accountable and sharing what I have been thinking about lately to clarify some of my intentions and goals.

My word for this year is Light.  I used my previous blog post for the journaling section on the "reason why" cards.  The photo was one I had snapped with my phone at sunrise during our vacation to Utah this past summer.  And while I'm not a "yellow person" I decided that my word practically demands that yellow be used, so I'm going with kind of a yellow/gold and blue color scheme.  I think.

That little heart is a wooden one I found in my stash.  I just used a little chalk to give it a blue tint and free-hand cut out the star, folding the paper back-to-back first so that the back matched the front since I knew I wanted to just slip it into the pocket and leave that section open to the next page.

Page two and so on.  I'll let the photos tell the story from here on.

So as January comes to a close, here's to seeking out and finding the light and the joy in everyday life.
What are you hoping for in 2015?

My One Little Word for 2015

Happy New Year!  Have I said that yet?

I have loved the holiday break.  Lots of fun, lots of time with the kids and extended family, plenty of down time to recharge.  But I also found myself a bit on edge - quick to lose my patience, cranky, maybe a little out of balance emotionally.  In among all this, I had been thinking about and selected my Word for this year (this is something I've been doing for the past few years in addition to setting goals.  It works as more of a touchstone or focus for me throughout the year.  See previous posts here) and one hit me out of the blue.

I think I'm pretty good at buckling down, working on the To Dos and Have Tos, being proactive, recognizing priorities, setting goals, looking for balance, and so on.  I've done plenty of work on being efficient, setting routines, and following through and I will have plenty of that going on this year without having to put extra focus on it.  Instead, I find myself wanting to reach for the softer things in life -  to be goofier with the kids, to be more patient, deal with interruptions better, more work on relationships with the people that mean the most to me, the fun, the laughter, peace, positivity.  Things that don't come as naturally to my mostly-serious self.
 
The word that came to me a couple weeks ago and has felt more and more right for me each day is

To me, light means joy.  Beauty.  Warmth.  Love.  Inspiration.  Giving.  Sharing talents and creativity.
So many many different ways and directions I can go with this and that's exciting.

This is the first year that my word comes to mind with its own visuals - light streaming through a break in the clouds on a stormy day or that hazy glowing backlight photographers are always trying to capture - lots of moods and nuances and all of them positive and affirming.  And that's what I want in 2015.    light


Do any of you choose a word for the year?  (ie: One Little Word along with Ali Edwards)  Set goals?  I'd love to hear about it.

All Set

I feel like we're on the final countdown here.  Last (partial) week of 2014, one more week of Christmas vacation then Real Life hits again in full force.  And I'm so NOT ready to get back to the normal routine.  Or maybe I just don't want to go down to the freezing cold shop and work on drying racks while the snow falls and the kids are home entertaining themselves -  and the attitude is just carrying over to everything?...
I have been enjoying the slower pace the past few days and not forcing myself to get up and go to the gym or work on a giant list of To Dos.  Though I do also enjoy being productive and being on top of things.  Both have their place and the art of balancing them has been on my mind a lot the last couple of days.  There are just so many parts and pieces that make up a life, aren't there?  And only limited quantities of energy, motivation, time, and money.
It may be cliche, but this time of year is when I get in that mode to really think about and reevaluate my life, my priorities, and the direction I want to take in the new year and I've been taking a few solid steps toward preparing to jump into the new year with both feet.  I am finishing up my final prompt for the OLW workshop I participated in this year (and starting to get excited for the process next year) and am pretty sure I have decided on my new Word for next year (that will get it's own blog post in a few days).  I sat down with Kaitlyn this morning and we revised and reprinted the Before Screens list for the kids (we haven't used the lists at all since the move and I've been having such a hard time keeping Tyler on track and self directed lately.  Hoping this alleviates some of the frustration and constant nagging) and have them hanging up ready to be used.  I have a few other things/ideas for interactions with the kiddos that are percolating in my head.  I even found homes for most of the new things we all got for Christmas and the clutter piles are nearly all gone.

I also picked up a weekly planner - something I haven't used in years.  I have a number of reasons for doing so.  First of all, I haven't been on the ball about putting things on my Google calendar and I'm hoping that having it all just in a hard copy will be easier for keeping track of appointments and schedules.  I know, right?  Old School.  But the bigger reason for purchasing a planner was for memory keeping/scrapbooking purposes.  My intention for the last few years has been to put together some kind of December Daily album (I know - lots of inspiration from Ali Edwards lately.  We must have similar personalities/tastes or something ;)  ) but I am never fully set up enough to do it as I go along, so this year I printed off a weekly calendar for December - you know the ones with a bunch of lines under each day of the week so you can take notes - and have been using it to keep track of some of the things I want to remember from each day.  I've seen that kind of idea before - using a calendar to write down one memory every day during your baby's first year and so on - and a light finally went off.  Those little squares on a calendar are not nearly enough room to write down a story from the day or any sort of detail but the idea of keeping it all in one place, in something that is easy to pick up and use, is a solid one.  So.  My plan for this year is to write down everything I want to remember in the weekly planner - funny quotes from the kids, details about daily life, stories of big events, etc.  Much easier than scrolling through Facebook posts, emails, and blog posts trying to figure out what happened during week ____ when trying to put together my layouts/albums.  Right now I'm thinking I'm pretty brilliant, but the true test will be a couple months into it to see if I have been following through on writing everything down on a regular basis.

I really am serious about doing more scrapbooking on a regular basis.  I even had the husband buy me a photo printer for Christmas - so exciting!  I still need to get another USB cord so I can hook it directly to my computer instead of printing solely from the camera's memory card but I have figured out the basics of how to use it and am very pleased with the photo prints so far.  So with the photo printer on hand and a weekly crafting date all set up with a friend I am looking forward to making a lot of progress with the scrapbooking this year.

Now I just need to finalize a few fun plans for New Years Eve (ack - someone tell me I'm not the only one that staying up until midnight doesn't appeal to! lol) and I think I'm all set to head into 2015.  Are you?

One Little Word - April Prompts

 Some months are harder than others.  For me April was a rough one - though I should be quick to add it was not because anything bad happened.  There was so just much going on and so much to do (the Etsy shop had our highest sales month ever - woohoo!, Spring Projects, Spring Break, and the craziness of life in general) that it felt like a marathon, where you are determined to finish it all and don't want to stop or slow down even though at times it feels overwhelming.  (At least I imagine that's the mentality in a marathon)  Midway through the month I recognized that I was constantly tired and cranky and having a hard time keeping the right balance mentally so I took the time to order a ring engraved with my Word for the Year (Intention) to help me have a more physical reminder of the mindset I wanted to have.

Needless to say, I didn't have the right opportunity to clear out my brain enough to put together everything for the month's OLW prompt (One Little Word Workshop with Ali Edwards) though I did take a few minutes for journaling here and there.  Then magically on Thursday (May 1) I found myself with a large chunk of the day's plans cancelled (rainy days do come in handy sometimes) and I was able to finish - yay!

First off, my reflections for March:

 Part one of the assignment for April was to put our word into photos.  My first thought was to take entirely new photos throughout the month as the opportunity arose.  Of course that didn't happen.  So I was surprised at how easily it came together once I sat down, made a list of some of the ideas I wanted to illustrate and found I could almost immediately think of photos I had taken within the last 6 months that fit the concepts I had in mind.

 

The second part of the assignment was to find something to Let Go of for the month and then to journal about it directly on top of a photo of ourselves.  Wow - out of my comfort zone on that one, for sure.  I hate my handwriting and it's so rare now that I am in photos and even more rare that I like how I look in them.  All I see is frizzy hair and wrinkles.  I know - it's a self image thing.  I'm working on it and working on figuring out how to tame the frizz ;)  (seriously, it's been years of experimenting with the best way to deal with my curly hair since moving to this high humidity).  The photo is one I took with my phone to show off a new haircut to some far-away friends a few months back.

 

 The journaling reads:
Let It Go - How funny that I became obsessed with that song (from Disney's Frozen movie) months ago and how fitting that it applies in so many ways to my life.  I belt it out at the top of my lungs and whatever part needs to speak to me at the moment is there.
-be myself.  Don't worry how that appears to others/what they think
-put it behind me.  Stop obsessing and move on
-it isn't important.  Don't worry about it.
-you're happy.  Be Happy!
-sing and dance.  It's who you are and it feels good
-expectations determine our perspective.  Modify as needed
So April's assignment, in part, was to find something ot let go.  I got stuck on that because there are about a million appropriate and meaningful responses to that.  And at the same time I felt like I've put a lot of effort into Letting Go on a lot of different fronts and don't need to add  any more (and overwhelm myself).  Then April hit, hard and heavy, and I was stressed, frazzled, tired and cranky.  Life was going too fast and I couldn't get a break.  So here I sit in the Overwhelmed stage, not exactly sure what to do about it all or even if I should.  But that sums up my Let it Go lesson for the month - whatever is interrupting/interfering with my calm/peace of mind at any given moment, that is what I need to Let Go.  Expectations of myself.  Unreasonable demands on my time.  Frustration. with a person or situation.  Never-ending To Do lists. 
Just Let It Go!

 So there you have it - April's prompt not only finished but blogged!

PS - Happy Saturday and Happy National Scrapbook day to all!  I'm thinking I might just find MAKE the time this afternoon to pull out the supplies and create something.

One Little Word for March

Well we're a full week into March and I'm pretty proud of myself for jumping right into my One Little Word prompts for the month.  I've found that I look forward to the first of the month and the opportunity to explore my word and my goals in a different way. 

I'm wondering if I need bigger cards for the reflections lol.  These are only baseball card sized and I'm finding myself struggling to put everything down in the small space.  But maybe that's a good thing - makes me focus and pare it down to just the important parts.

 

My reflections for February read: 

The overall feeling for the month was calm happy progression.  I'm getting things done and I've taken some steps toward a healthier lifestyle (including signing us up for the Color Run in May!).  Places I feel I could use more:
-giving the kids my full attention.  Following thru on what I want to do/teach them
-judgment/gossip/negativity.  redirect convo/thoughts
-and in everything - show love.

 

The "assignment" for March was to make a vision board.  It didn't necessarily have to be about or include my Word, just things that call to me.  And I have to admit, it's not really my "thing" to create like this.  I love words and I love making things, but the collage-type look isn't my style.  Once I found some magazines (thanks Jeannette!) and started clipping it actually came together pretty quickly.

 I know a lot of people in the group plan on displaying their boards somewhere in their home but I don't have an appropriate space for that right now (my focus is on getting photos out and displayed - more on that tomorrow!) so I designed mine as a two page layout for my OLW album.  I really tried to keep it simple.  Just paper and a glue stick.  Sure, the big pieces ended up bubbling a little bit, but I'm ok with that.

 I think the big Intention (it's vinyl) was what it needed to pull it together.

 

 find your healthy happy mom place

 I used mostly titles cut from magazines but I did pull in a couple of quotes I had printed from Pinterest like this one from Nike and the quote pictured at the beginning of this post.

 And there it is all happily a part of my OLW album.  Right now the back side of the first page is blank so I'll probably end up printing up another quote on full size paper and adding it in there later.
We'll see.  The whole point of this project for me is to let it evolve as I go along.  My plan for the rest of the month is to spend some more time journaling and putting into practice more of my intentions...

One Little Word 2014 - January Prompts

I mentioned the word I chose for this year, right? (yup!  original post on that can be found here)  I really want to keep my word, Intention, more present in my daily life this year.  So I signed up for the online One Little Word Workshop.  And so far it's been working!  It has taken me most of the month to complete the layouts, which is probably a good thing.  I've been able to think about my word and the prompts while my hands are busy painting drying racks or working on other things but it was hard to find time to sit down and write it all out and even harder to find the time to work on the layouts.  Typically I would have been quick to sit down and get it all done, but extending the process throughout the month has not only helped me be more clear on my Word and where I want to go with it, but it keeps the word in the front of my mind and I've found that my actions truly do reflect what I've been thinking about, at least a little bit.

 So now that the layouts are complete, I may as well show them off, right?  This is the title page.  The top half is actually on a transparency with the wording done with vinyl (but it was too busy for photos with the next page showing through so I stuck a piece of cardstock behind it).

 I wanted to keep the focus on the process, not particularly the layouts so I did all the journaling first in a notebook.  Then I typed it all up on the templates in Photoshop (first time doing something like that!  I'm not great at Photoshop but it went pretty smoothly and easily) and printed them out.  But let's face it, it's me and I can't NOT add a little personality to a project like this.  Plus, I had grabbed a really cute paper stack a few weeks ago thinking it would be fun to use on this project.  So I added a few patterned paper accents, just for fun.

My Word for 2013

Good morning!  I'm feeling chipper today but not quite motivated to do anything tangible and productive yet, which usually means it's a great time to blog :)

With the holidays behind us and the new year begun, I have done my share of thinking about goals and plans.  For the last few years, one of the things I have been using to solidify my resolve and remind myself of my goals throughout the year is Ali Edward's One Little Word concept.  Basically I pick a word for the year that best fits what I want to focus on for the year.
I love the way Ali describes it.

 "You live with it. You invite it into your life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities."

If you want, you can see the words I used in previous years (link here). 

In the past year, especially the last few months, I felt a bit like life was galloping along and I was kind of just along for the ride, holding on for dear life at some points.  (Ok, maybe not quite that extreme but it's a nice visual, right?)  And what I would truly like to work on this year is figuring out how to make the days more...mine.  To feel less like life was quickly passing by and I wasn't getting what I wanted to out of it.  And it wasn't necessarily about control.  I think I'm pretty good about setting priorities, saying "no," delegating, making sure most things on my list get accomplished, planning some fun things and down time when needed, etc.  I ran through a bunch of words to try to describe to myself what it was I wanted.  Simplify.  Revel.  Savor.  Explore.  And the word I kept coming back to was

Choose

Not the most exciting word as words go but a very versatile one when it comes right down to it.  By definition Choose means:

1. to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference:

2. to prefer or decide (to do something)

3. to want; desire.

To me that means taking the time to be more aware of what I am choosing to do with my time and how it will affect my life.  Take spending time with the kids.  I ran across this quote by Anna Quindlen this morning and thought it was great.  "...when in doubt choose the kids.  There will be plenty of time later to choose work."
Some other great quotes from Pinterest

 

(photo found here)
Perfect right?  One of the things I try to work very hard on is my attitude and perspective on anything that is currently going on in my life.

 (photo found here)
For when I doubt myself.

(photo found here)

And for when I need a little reminder to prioritize or not try to add anything else into a packed schedule.


So I'm wondering, does anyone else have a word for their year?

Word of the Year (2012)

(image credit)

Well it's a good thing one of my resolutions for this year wasn't keeping up with the blog or getting ahead of things (though maybe it should be) as I would have already blown that one :) I picked my Word for the Year a couple weeks ago but didn't blog about it yet. And you know it isn't real until I blog about it! (and put it out there where everyone can see and hold me accountable).

For those of you that have known me for a while (in person or online), you know that every year I follow Ali Edwards' example and select a word to use as my touchstone for the year. I spend some time thinking about where my life is, what I see happening in the next year, and where I could use the most help in focusing mentally/emotionally. This isn't a goal-setting activity, it's more about guiding my state of mind. As Ali says about her One Little Word:

"You live with it. You invite it into your life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities." (you can read her entire blog post about it here)

So what did I see for myself in the coming year? I see it as a year of transition. My youngest will be finishing up preschool and moving on to Kindergarten. And as a Stay-At-Home-Mom that is something more than just a sign of a child growing up. It means a major shift in my every-day life. I actually see it as quite freeing, though bittersweet. There are just so many things lately that remind me of how quickly children grow up. But in between now and then is a lot of learning and growing for everyone.

So the word I selected for this year is:

Moments.

Live in the moment. Appreciate the moment. My kids aren't getting younger - remember the moment. Take advantage of the moment. Capture the moment (photos). Quit procrastinating and get stuff done so I can better enjoy the other moments. :)...

Do you do a Word of the Year? Please share. Ran across a great quote that uses the word moment? Please share that too!

One Little Word 2011

It's New Years Eve and time for me to declare my One Little Word for 2011. I started doing this a couple years ago after seeing the idea on Ali Edwards blog and have been surprised at the difference it makes in my life. Last year I chose the word ENJOY and with all the changes and stress we went through, the reminder was much needed at times.

Now that we are in a new house, in a completely new area far from home, and definitely not settled yet I've found myself wanting to tackle everything all at once - paint the entire house and furnish and decorate it, get the kids signed up for lessons and preschool for Ty, meet the neighbors and people in the community and make new friends, and on and on. We all know that only leads a very stressed and overwhelmed Mama. I also found myself trying to multi-task too much or only half-listening when one of my kids was trying to tell me something. So this year I chose the word

focus

I can't do everything all at once so I need to remind myself to just focus on one thing at a time and let the others go.
Focus on one room or one project.
Focus on the kids and my husband.
Focus on learning/adapting to my new environment and not comparing it (too much) to what I'm used to.
Focus on better eating and exercise habits for myself.
Focus on whatever I am doing at the current time. And be happy about it.
And also, take the term literally and work on improving my skills behind the camera.

Anyone else have a Word for the year?

Word of the Year 2010

I've spent the last week or so thinking about what word I would like to use for my Word of the Year. For those of you that haven't run across this concept before, the idea is to select a word for the year that represents what you want to focus on throughout the year. I first ran across this idea last year on Ali Edwards blog (and yes she is doing it again this year). My word for last year was Enjoy (see post here).

This year I am expecting a lot of changes - events that I won't really have a lot of control over. My husband is in the middle of a career change. The military (husband is in the Reserves) is also going to mess with our lives, possibly more than once. And life with young children is a constant state of changing plans and adapting. So my word for this year is

live

"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed"

I want to keep my focus on living in the here and now, being happy with where I am and what is going on. I want to dial back my "planner" tendancies and go with the flow. I want to quit putting off doing things because I think there will be a better time for it (as in "I'll start eating better after the holidays" or "I'll take that class when my life settles down" or "when we get a bigger house I'll...").

Now that I have decided on my word, I want to explore it further using this Word of the Year Discovery Tool and figure out specific goals that fit in with this. Like how I'm going to manange to motivate myself long enough to finish losing this "baby weight" (I can still call it that even if the baby is 3 now right?). And of course plaster it all over the house so I can remember it - but that requires a craft day so the plastering will be cute as well as functional :)

Has anyone else been thinking about their own word for the year?

*I am also participating in the Feeling Fabulous Challenge over at Somewhat Simple. If you're wanting a ready made way to track/work on some of those typical New Years Goals, this is a great system.
*update (1/5/10) - I had the chance to sit down and make a few signs for me to put up around the house. (thank goodness for craft Tuesdays) Cute huh? I love that I was able to use up scraps from some of my favorite papers.

*linking to 2010 Word of the Year over at Tip Junkie