"Week in the Life"

Ali Edwards project "Week in the Life" starts TODAY!  You can check this project out at http://aliedwards.com/projects/     Then grab your camera, and get started!  This is the second year I'll be doing this project, and it's a lot of fun!  This is the first time it's being done in the summer months, which for me, will be a lot different than when it's during the school/work part of the year.

(The picture above is from Ali's blog; my first picture of today was my cat Patches, greeting me as I awoke this morning, sitting on my bed.)

One little word 2010

With January quickly approaching, I was reminded that I need to pick my word for 2010. The idea comes from ali edwards, one of my favorite all time creative people. She has picked her work for this year, which is STORY. Her words in past years are Nurture for 2009, Vitality for 2008, and Peace for 2007. (You can read her original post on "one little word" here.)

I picked my first word in 2008 after reading ali's blog. My word in 2008 was CREATIVE. I really wanted to focus my energy on being creative that year; in fact, starting a blog was part of that creative process.

Last year I picked the word MINDFUL for 2009.

As I started thinking about my word for 2010, and about writing about it on my blog, I was going to come up with a list of words I might consider. ali has people post words they are considering, so you can see all kinds of words that might resonate for you. But as I started to think of words to consider, one popped into my head, and I can't let it go. So, it will be my word for 2010.

My 'tag line' on my email signature at work is this phrase: "Be the change you wish to see in the world" by Gandhi. So the word change is important to me. And as I thought of 2010, I thought about my need to change my eating habits, to keep the weight off that I lost this year. And I also know I want to change the way I think about some things, like letting negative people zap my energy. So there was my word . . . one that I think will be important to me in 2010 . . . CHANGE.

I'm excited for that to be my word!

Hope you pick out 'one little word' for 2010 that will help your year be a great one!

{a} ali edwards

Okay, so I really love Ali Edwards. I have thoroughly enjoyed her latest book, Life Artist. If you like her too, or want to learn more about her, here are two video clips for you to check out:

Interview with Ali with Scrap n Style at a Memory Trends Convention, where she talks a little bit about Life Artist and about her son, Simon, who has autism, and how she got started with scrapbooking.

Ali's Favorite Crafting Tools - check out to see whether you're using one or more of the 4 tools she says are her favorite crafting tools.

Happy crafting!

Books

I really, really enjoyed reading Life Artist by Ali Edwards! Her book is full of ideas about how to "just scrapbook". . . .leaving all your hang-ups aside, embracing life, embracing imperfection, and just getting your story told. She truly is an inspiration to living a creative life!!

I'm still enjoying the wonderful words of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. I've been eating with her through Italy and praying with her at the Ashram in India, and now that we're in Indonesia, I'm guessing we'll be doing some loving! Again, she is a wonderful author and I love all her metaphors. . . . ones that make me say, "Oh yeah, that's exactly what it's like!" even though I would never have thought of it in that way before reading her words. Great book!


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And now I'm thinking of the new books I want to read. Here are two on my list:

I have like 10,000 pictures. And I am not exaggerating! My 'boys' are 22 and 20. I have pictures of indoor soccer games, outdoor soccer games, t-ball, games, minor-A games, minor-B games, majors, pony league, pop-warner football, volleyball, high-school football games, broken arms, stitches, Halloween pictures, Christmas pictures, birthdays. . . . . .well, you get the picture. (Pun intended). So I've been reading about Stacy Julian's new book, Photo Freedom, which is supposed to be a treasure trove of how to deal with all the pictures without being overwhelmed. And even though I'm making a dent in the thousands of pictures I have, I still feel like I need help. The book can be pre-ordered on line (through Creating Keepsakes) but I want to spend the money locally if I can (yes, I'm one of those types of people) so I asked Gena at Cool Scrapbook Stuff to call me when they got their order into the store. I'm hoping this new book will help me get my act together when it comes to my stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of pictures!

Another book I read about on various blogs of my favorite creative people was this book, 52 Random Acts of Everyday Creativity. First of all, since my word for this year is create, this book seems like a natural way to kick-start some creative juices in me. As their site states: "52 Projects is an exploration of your creativity -- from the culinary to the literary to the artistic". I like that it stretches you in many different areas of creativity. I'll let you know how it is!

Happy Reading! : )