Today is Memorial Day in the USA. It's a day we set aside to remember our fallen military men and women. I'm honored to be the daughter, grandaughter and niece of the men in my family that have served our great nation. Memorial day is not something I take lightly. Thank you to all who have served with the highest sacrifice and to the loved ones they left behind.
It's time to set up my June calendar in my bullet journal planner. This month I am switching from my A5 Moleskine dotted notebook to a larger B5 Leuchtturm1917 dotted notebook. Mainly because my A5 is full and I wanted to see if a B5 would work and last longer. There are fewer pages in the B5, so time will tell. By the time January 2017 rolls around I hope to have figured out what will work best for me. As I say often in my videos about bullet journals, it is a process of finding what works for you. ;) I'm in that process too.
I changed up a couple of things in my new planner. The first is that I combined my birthday page with my year at a glance page by putting birthdays under each month. There's even room underneath for next year additions.
The biggest reason for puchasing a larger size was to combine my monthly business calendar with my personal/family calendar. Be sure and come back at the end of June to hear how it is working out for me. p.s. My Creative Memories friends might recognize this blast from the past with long retired stickers. ;)
I'm still experimenting with how to set up my weekly and dailies. The first week I did similar to how I have been doing it. Weekly on a 2 page spread, followed by dailies. I was able to fit all 7 days on a 2 page spread instead of spreading it out to 4. Another advantage to the larger size. This is the week I am on and so far it is working for me, but my weekly layout was left with a TON of blank space.
So, when I set up next week, I added my dailies below my weekly. I'm not entirely sure this is going to work, as I tend to need lots of space on my dailies, but next week is a holiday week, so perhaps it will be ok. I decided not to add a daily tracker for June. Instead I added a little glass stamp from Plan On It by Lawn Fawn that I can color on the days I drink my water. I'll add a little weight bar after I work out. I've got little empty hearts on my dailies below that I can use to indicate tasks. I'm also planning on starting a new type of tracker for my business tasks. Stay tuned for that. (as soon as I decide what I'm doing. lol)
The last week I filled out was the first full week in June. This will give me 3 weeks in my new bujo to decide how I want to proceed with the rest of the month. You might notice the little envelopes I stamped for days I need to mail out cards. :) I've found that my lighter Stampin' Up! inks do not bleed through as bad as the Hero Arts Shadow Inks I used last month. I'll keep experimenting with different inks and share what I find with you. It was fun to combine my love of stamping into my planner. Plus I love the visuals!!!
As you can see, my set up is fairly simple. I'm trying to find what works for me. Have you tried combining your weekly and daily schedules? Do you have any tips for me to try? I'd love to see your work! Feel free to share you instagram, blog or pinterest page in the comments so we can all see!
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It's Wednesday. That means challenge day at StampNation. For this week's challenge I created a fun game of tic-tac-toe. Just wait until you see all the combinations you can use to inspire your creativity! Here is a sneak peek of my exclusive card for StampNation.
To create my tic tac toe I used the prompts Circle - Square - Flower.
Stamps: Be Blessed (Verve) Beautiful Word (Gina K for SOA) Enchanted Garden (Sugar Pea Designs for SOA)
Ink: Black Onyx (Versafine) Lilac to Grape Ombre (Hero Arts) 50(Zig Clean Color Real Brush) Squeezed Lemonade (Distress)
Paper: Whisper White (Stampin' Up) Woodgrain (Essential by Ellen)
Accessories: Black Twine, Spring Flowers Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh) Enchanted Garden Dies (SugarPea Designs for SOA) Square Framelits, retired Corner Punch (SU)
The circle in a square started off my card, so I just needed a flower. I looked through my scrap pile to see if I could find one and that led to my second card. :)
On the top of my pile of saved pieces was this Mon Ami flower stamped and die cut in New York last Fall. I borrowed the stamp from Michele Gross and the stitched square dies from Maureen. Today I colored the flower with my Zig markers, then I layered it on a piece of watercolor wash paper that was also die cut. That was a super simple thing to create and I'm not sure why I never used it. Basically I used a very wet brush, dipped it in purple watercolor and swiped it across my paper. The finishing touch to this card was a leftover heart vine from one of my videos last month. It's amazing to me how pretty this card turned out when it started with just some scraps and a little tic-tac-toe inspiration.
While I was making this card I came up with an idea for a 3rd card. Imagine how many cards I could make if I keep trying other ways to make tic-tac-toe. I might have enough inspiration to last me a month. :) That's a good challenge!
Stamps: Mon Ami (CASual Fridays Stamps) Enchanted Garden (Sugar Pea Designs for SOA)
Ink/Paint: Black Onyx (Versafine) 40, 41, 81, 82 (Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers) Simply Art Paint (Loew Cornell)
Paper: Distress Watercolor (Tim Holtz) Whisper White (Stampin' Up)
Accesories: Clear Embossing Powder (SU) Enchanted Garden Dies (Sugar Pea Designs for SOA) Blueprints 27, Zig Zag Stitched Square Dies (My Favorite Things) Wink of Stella (Zig)
For months I had to keep a secret. If you have watched any of my planner videos on making my own bullet journal planner you saw post-its covering up info I didn't want the world to see. One of those things I made sure to cover up was anything to do with Melissa's quilt, on the off chance she might see the video or I might accidentally post it on Instagram. I started writing M's quilt in my planner, because I did not want to be the one that blew the surprise. Anyone glancing at my planner would assume M was for my son Michael, my mom or even my mother-in-law. Now the secret is out and the surprise has been revealed so I can share it with you!
AM, Melissa and Patti
At our guild meeting last month we presented Melissa Dunworth with a quilt made by our South Sound Modern Quilt Guild members especially for her. We were able to honor her and thank her in the best way possible, a quilt to commemorate her time as our founder and first president. Melissa started the local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild after moving up here from CA. She wanted to connect with local quilters and help spread the modern quilting movement. Ruby Street Quiltworks offered their classroom for our meeting space and helped spread the word about the possibility of a new guild starting. The first meeting was held and I think the response blew Melissa and her friends away. She met a need many of never even knew we had.
Months later we officially became a member of the Modern Quilt Guild and when it came time to choose our first president, Melissa was the natural choice. When it came time to choose our second president a year later, nobody else felt they could do the job Melissa had been doing, so we nominated her again. :) At that time she and the board started setting up committees to take over some of the burden from the president, and she paved the way for a new president to come in. Thankfully Cecile Baggenstos stepped up and accepted the challenge of becoming our new guild president to give Melissa a well deserved and much earned break! Of course, she isn't taking a break from our guild (we won't let her) and she isn't taking a break from sewing (did you hear she was recently published in Generation Q magazine?), but a break from the responsibilities of leading our guild.
It took a few months to get this quilt together and nobody told Melissa a thing about it. The rules were simple. Make a 12.5" block or a 6.5" block using the colors of our blog header. Then it was a matter of bringing them to March meeting and getting them to Patti without Melissa noticing. Next it was time for a committee to design and piece the quilt top. After that it went to another guild member to quilt it. Then it came to me. I had the privilege of sewing the binding on by hand and as I did so I spoke blessings over Melissa. I hoped and prayed that she would know how much the guild means to us each time she looks at it. I want her to know how very deeply grateful I am to her for the connection she has given me to the quilting world and especially to the other members of our guild. I know many of the other ladies feel the same way. I thought about how special she is to have stepped out and stepped up. I'm blessed by her friendship and so very grateful to know her.
Most of all I hope that as Melissa looks at the quilt she will see that she did something incredible, that she is valued beyond her roles as a military wife and mom (not that those aren't extremely valuable, they are, but moms can often feel they've lost their individual identity), that she will know she made a difference in the lives of the members she served and all that received quilts because of the charity work our guild has done and WILL DO! That is a lot to be grateful for. <3
I feel so priveledged to have been a part of this special project. The SSMQG is the very first guild I've belonged to. I remember telling my husband I wanted to go to the first meeting to find out about the Modern Quilt Guild. He asked me why, and I told him, "it is so rare to be a part of a guild from it's beginning. We moved here from another state and I don't really belong here yet. I'm not a part of anything from it's beginning here in WA. This might be something that I could belong to and feel connected to." It is not easy for me to walk into a room full of people I don't know, so it took a leap a faith to go to that first meeting. I've rarely missed a meeting since.
For my block, I chose to use a flying geese pattern (her favorite) in a design that I've been wanting to try since I first saw it. It was a little difficult to give away after I finished it because I like it so much. ;) Thank goodness I know how to make another one. :)
It took a few months to get this quilt together and nobody told Melissa a thing about it. The rules were simple. Make a 12.5" block or a 6.5" block using the colors of our blog header. Then it was a matter of bringing them to March meeting and getting them to Patti secretly. Next it was time for a committee to design and piece the quilt top. After that it went to another guild member to quilt it. Then it came to me.
AM checking out her the cute critter block on her mama's new quilt. <3
I had the priveledge of sewing the binding on by hand and as I did so I spoke blessings over Melissa. I hoped and prayed that she would know how much the guild means to us each time she looks at it. I want her to know how very deeply grateful I am to her for the connection she has given me to the quilting world and especially to the other members of our guild. I know many of the other ladies feel the same way. I thought about how special she is to have stepped out and stepped up. I'm blessed by her friendship and so very grateful to know her. Most of all I hope that as looks at the quilt she will see that she did something incredible, that she is valued beyond her roles as wife and mom (not that those aren't extremely valuable, they are, but moms can often feel they've lost their individual identity), that she will know she made a difference in the lives of the members she served and all that received quilts because of the charity work our guild has done and WILL DO! That is a lot to be grateful for. <3
The last step was putting on the label. I think the quilt came out as a perfect reflection of our guild. I'm so proud of our ladies for their hard work. (we don't have any male members, yet.)
One last thank you to Melissa Dunworth for fulfilling something in me I didn't even know I was missing. You have done an incredible thing and I will forever be grateful to you.
Being creative has been such a blessing in my life that I want to share it with others. On my blog you will find cards, scrapbooks, quilts and a bit of my family life mixed in.
