For Today

Happy New Year!

So far, 2012 is off to a great start.   

Here's what is happening around here.

Today...

I am thinking about...what might be in store for me this year.  I'm not planning to write down any formal resolutions.  Sure, I have a few goals in my mind, but by and large, I'm just going to embrace whatever comes along.  

I am thankful for...time with my husband.  Last night, he treated me to a delicious dinner: homemade crab bisque, grilled steak, Caesar salad, and garlic bread.  Oh, and cookie dough ice cream for dessert. 

I am working on...several upcoming blog posts.  Stay tuned!

I am creating...my 2012 Project Life binder.  I ordered the Clementine Edition binder and core kit, as well as photo pocket pages (Design A and Design C) and big envelope pages.  I'm EXCITED to continue using Project Life to document what's happening in our lives.  

I am watching...the movie, Something Borrowed, and really liking it.  I see a lot of myself in the character, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin).  Have any of you read the book?  Was it better than the movie?

I am loving...vacation time.  Time to reflect, to plan, to sleep, to organize, to play, to dream.   

I am reading...Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength.  Being an introvert myself, I can definitely relate to many of the author's thoughts and experiences.         

I am hoping...to finish up my 2011 Project Life binder this week.  Just need to print out a a handful of photos and slip them into the pocket pages.  

A few pictures to share:

2012 Project Life binder: Clementine Edition

 

First Page (Cards are from the Core Kit.)

Last Page

Big Envelope Page (perfect for memorabilia)

Project Life, 6/21-6/22

Howdy!

I'm back with the last Project Life installment...for now.


During the last two days of our vacation, we spent additional time in Nashville.

June 21st: Just minutes from our hotel was a Sonic restaurant. And since we'd never eaten there before, we figured we'd try it. Pulling up into a parking space and not actually getting out of the car to eat was a little strange. I was hoping our server was going to roller skate to our car, but she just walked out. My disappointment, however, was quickly replaced by joy when I learned that Sonic serves tater tots. I'd rather have tots than fries any day of the week!


Later on that day, we drove out to the Grand Ole Opry to see a show. Not only did we hear Chris Young sing (again), but we were also treated to performances by Mark Wills and Rodney Adkins. Little Jimmy Dickens, who is 90 years old now, also made an appearance. What a hoot he is--still singing, playing, and telling stories!




June 22nd: Our flight home wasn't until 6:00, so we drove into downtown Nashville for lunch at the Wildhorse Saloon. Following lunch, we played a mean game of air hockey, looked at cowboy boots in a nearby store, and then made the long trek (16 blocks or so) to Music Row, the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry.


On our way back to the car, it started to rain and by the time we reached our vehicle, we were both pretty drenched.

Our "road trip" came to its official conclusion at the Nashville airport, where we learned that we had traversed nearly 1900 miles during our journey.

A big thanks to my husband who drove ALL of those miles, getting us safely from place-to-place over the course of 13 days.


In the airport, as we waited for our flight home, I replayed our vacation in my mind.

Yes, I was sad that our trip was coming to an end, but at the same time, I felt thankful for all of the wonderful memories Brian and I had made. I had loved attending the CMA Music Fest.
I had loved spending time with my Virginia family and my friend, Noah. I had loved visiting places I'd never been, trying foods I'd never tasted before.

But I was excited to get home. To see our dogs. To sleep in my own bed. To putter around the house. To eat a home cooked meal. (Eating out, every day, had really started getting old.) And I was looking forward to documenting this fantastic road trip in my Project Life book.

Thanks for letting me share our vacation memories with you!

Going forward, my plan is to continue to add photos, journaling cards, and ephemera to my PL book--not on a daily basis (as I did on our vacation)--but as often as I can.

J

P.S. If you couldn't make it to Nashville for the CMA Music Fest, check out ABC's TV special, 'CMA Music Fest: Country's Night to Rock' on Sunday, August 7 at 5:00 PM (PST).

Project Life, 6/17-6/20

Happy Friday!

Hope you've had a great week.

I'm back with a look at our travel adventures from June 17-June 20, 2011.


June 17: Even though I've visited my grandparents in Northern Virginia many times over the past 30 years, I'd never set foot in Colonial Williamsburg prior to our trip.

It was so fun to take a step back in time in this historic capital and watch a series of live reenactments. It was like taking U.S. History 101 again. I loved that the characters were all dressed in clothing (and wigs) fashionable during the 1700s.

During our time in Colonial Williamsburg, Brian and I toured the Capitol building, the Guardhouse, the Randolph House, and the Bruton Parish Church. We also wandered into a number of shops along the way, including those belonging to the weaver, the gunsmith, and the shoemaker.

Reminder: You can click on any photo to make it appear larger.




While in Williamsburg, we also checked out the College of William and Mary as well as hit the stores for some shopping. I had no idea that Williamsburg is home to A TON of outlet stores. In the Williamsburg Premium Outlets (with a whopping 135 stores), I found a black fleece at the Columbia outlet, which will be perfect for next winter.

June 18: We spent the first part of the day driving from Williamsburg to Alexandria. In Alexandria, we met up with my grandparents at the nursing home where my grandfather resides. It was wonderful to take a tour of the facility and eat dinner in the dining hall.


June 19: Father's Day and my birthday

It was a day to be with family--to laugh, to celebrate, and to share.

It was a day filled with hugs, catching-up, opening presents, blowing out candles, taking pictures, reading Facebook messages, reflecting, writing, and just purely enjoying life.


I wanted to save my birthday cards, so I slipped them into a page protector.


June 20: Tour of Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) in Charlottesville, Virginia followed by dinner with Noah in Knoxville, Tennessee


After dinner at the Downtown Grill & Brewery, Noah, Brian and I walked around the downtown area, stopping to browse at two adorable stores: Bliss and Bliss Home.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Project Life.

Toodles,
J

Project Life, 6/13-6/16

Hi all!

I'm back today with more Project Life goodness.

Specifically, I want to share photos + stories from our travels in and around Asheville, North Carolina.


On June 13th, Brian and I were driving from Nashville to Asheville and we stopped off to have lunch with my friend, Noah. I didn't take any photos that day (since much of it was spent in the car), but I did want to include a few thoughts about the day. Therefore, I wrote on two journaling cards and slid them in a plastic flip pocket.

Here's what the right journaling card says: "Noah, Brian, and I were enjoying fried potato slices at a restaurant in Knoxville. As we devoured these tasty appetizers, we discussed delicious (albeit unhealthy) southern foods. Noah, who happens to be a doctor, said something to the effect of, "Ya'll should have had your cholesterol checked before the trip and then afterward." :-)


The following day--June 14th--Brian and I toured the Biltmore House & Gardens. Several of my friends had raved about the estate, and boy were they right. As we toured the enormous house (three White Houses could fit inside of it), we listened to stories about the Vanderbilt family via audio tour.

One of my favorite stories was about a cake that Mrs. Vanderbilt's staff baked for her young daughter, Cornelia's birthday. In the cake, the baker had placed an assortment of tiny objects (buttons, thimbles, dimes) that the children attending the party would presumably discover as they ate their slice of cake. Supposedly, if you were a boy and found a button in your cake, you'd be single for life. If you were a girl and you came upon a thimble, you'd be a spinster. If you were lucky enough to find a dime, you were destined to be rich.

How fun is that?!

The story, though, didn't end there. Turns out, none of the kids actually found a dime, which sent Mrs. Vanderbilt into a panic. She grabbed a knife and started cutting up the remaining pieces of cake looking for the dime. One of the little girls attending the party went home and told her mother how strange it was to see Mrs. Vanderbilt--a very wealthy woman--searching for a mere dime in the cake.


After we toured the house, it was off to the gardens! I had a blast shooting the garden areas and ponds. I love that they plant flowers in suitcases and display vintage bicycles in their indoor gardens.

In the small pockets (measuring 2.75" x 3.75"), I included our Biltmore tickets, restaurant receipts, hotel card key and a few pictures. One of my favorite pictures is the Baptist church sign that says: "If you think it's hot here..."


I wanted to include additional pictures, so I used this American Crafts photo protector page. The page was designed to hold 12 pictures, but I only had eight photos, so I just cut off the bottom third of it with my paper cutter.


The food at Luella's, a barbeque joint in Asheville, was so yummy! I had a brisket sandwich; Brian devoured a rack of ribs. We both tried Cheer Wine (a cherry soda) for the first time and loved it. Too bad it's only available in the south!


On June 15th, we drove to Chimney Rock, which is about 25 miles from Asheville.

After walking up 500 stairs, we were treated to a breathtaking view of the surrounding area. Western North Carolina is so beautiful!

And now it's time for a few movie trivia questions from the Chimney Rock park guide, which I slipped into this page protector.

1) Which 1992 movie was shot in Chimney Rock park?

2) Which 1987 movie was filmed in the nearby Lake Lure area? (Hint, hint: Nobody puts baby in a corner!)

(Answers are at the very end of this post.)


We also drove a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, south of Asheville. During our drive, hail pounded the roof of our car and thunder rumbled in the distance. Summer afternoon thunderstorms are such a common occurrence in the south, but for us west coasters, it's quite a treat!

Later on that day, the severe weather continued. In fact, while dining at Cracker Barrel (for the first time) and devouring our yummy chicken-fried steak/fried okra/fried apples, the lights kept flickering and we could hear the rain and thunder above the chatter. (It was so cool!) After finishing up our meal, we browsed the store, and then sat in the rocking chairs and played a game of checkers on the patio.

In the pockets, I included a map of western North Carolina and two receipts, along with a screen shot from Brian's iPhone showing the severe thunderstorms around Asheville.


I included four additional pictures from our time in Asheville using an American Crafts page protector.

One of them is a photo of the Manual Woodworkers & Weavers Factory Outlet located between Gerton and Bat Cave on US 74. They have a large selection of decorations, gifts, throws, linens, and pillows. I purchased a Christmas table runner, which I can't wait to place on our dining room table in December.


We had a wonderful time in and around Asheville, NC. In fact, I'd love to spend a few more days there in the future.

And now the time has come to reveal the answers to the movie trivia questions.

1) The Last of the Mohicans was shot in Chimney Rock park in 1992.

2) Dirty Dancing was filmed in nearby Lake Lure in 1987.

In my next post, I'll cover more of our trip beginning with our time in Williamsburg, VA.

J

Project Life, 6/10-6/12

Happy Fourth of July!

Hope you are having lots of fun this weekend with family and friends. We had a blast with some firefighter friends yesterday, and today we're off to a family barbeque.

In addition to the video I created about my Project Life book, I also wanted to take a photo walk through my PL book. (Note: Some of the information may be the same, but I'll try not to repeat everything.)

In this post, I'll cover June 10th-12th, the three days we spent in Nashville, Tennessee.

Here's a look at the first section of my Project Life book:

The first page in my book contains a June calendar. When I'm planning a trip, I use a printed calendar (from timeanddate.com) to help me figure out how best to schedule our time.

By the way, feel free to click on any of the images to make them appear larger.


On the back of the calendar is a Google map of the region we visited.

Next, you see my first divided pocket page from Project Life, which contains pictures, journaling cards (from Ali Edwards), and e-tickets.


I used two applications on my iPhone in preparing for this trip. The first, TripIt (pictured in the top left), enabled me to store and access all of our reservations (airline/hotel/car) right on my phone. Plus, I could easily e-mail our itinerary to family, so they could follow us along our journey. The second, Visual Travel Checklist (pictured in the middle), made packing for our trip a cinch.

Also on this page--in the top right corner--you will also see a coupon caddy. As I mentioned in this blog post, I carried the journaling cards with me in this caddy. Inside the caddy, I labeled each section by date starting with 6/10. During our road trip, I filed ticket stubs, receipts, memorabilia, and completed journaling cards in the appropriate dated section. (I placed larger things such as pamphlets, booklets and maps in a gallon-size ziplock bag.)




We had so much fun at CMA Music Fest! I think the CMA Music Fest is to country music fans what the Superbowl is to football fans. All the biggest and best singers/bands come out to play for their fans. Lucky for us, though, CMA Music Fest takes place over four days instead of one.

Originally, we'd only planned to go to the concerts on Friday and Saturday night only, but we enjoyed ourselves so much that we bought tickets to Sunday's concert, too.


I've been a big country music fan since junior high school (going on 20 years now), so it was a pleasure visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame. Listening to songwriter Craig Wiseman talk about his hit songs (and play them) was an unexpected treat.


That day, it was super hot--97 degrees with 60 percent humidity--in Nashville, but despite the heat, we ventured downtown and walked to the riverfront area to hear Chuck Wicks play.


These are pictures from Saturday night's concert. I loved getting dressed up and wearing my cowgirl boots! It was so awesome sitting outdoors, listening to hours of country music with my hubby by my side. I, especially, loved hearing Chris Young, Little Big Town, and Josh Turner play live.


On Sunday, we went to Mass and then had lunch at Caney Fork Restaurant. As I mentioned in this blog post from the road, we tried sweet tea, feasted on alligator tail, and inhaled their complimentary corn fritters. Southern food is delicious!


On Sunday night, it was back to LP field for more live country music. We enjoyed listening to Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. On Friday and Saturday nights we sat up in the cheap seats, but on Sunday, we sat down below, which gave us a better view of the stage. Right in front of us was a couple probably in their mid-seventies. It was so sweet to see the two of them holding hands, clapping to the music and periodically, standing up and swaying to a few songs. She wore ear plugs and he had his hearing aids turned down, but they were genuinely enjoying themselves. I hope when we're 70, we're still getting out, still enjoying life and still very much in love.

I'll be back later on this week to share more of my Project Life book.

Cheers,
J

My Third Blogoversary + Video

Today marks the third anniversary of my blog! :-)

First off, I want to thank YOU for reading my blog posts, leaving comments, and just generally being supportive of my writing, photography, scrapbooking, and other crafty projects.

I thought today would be the perfect time to unveil a project I've been working on since we returned from vacation. For the past week, I've been compiling a Project Life book.



If you're not familiar with Project Life, essentially it's a 12 x 12 binder with divided photo pocket pages and journaling cards. (After viewing Ali Edwards' pages for several months, I was inspired to create my own.)

I wanted to do something *special* for my blogoversary, so I created a 10-minute video about my Project Life book. In the video, you'll see me flip through the pages of my scrapbook, highlight a few of the key components, and along the way, tell you a little bit about our road trip.

Click here to view the video on Vimeo.

I'm also in the process of writing a few blog posts about my Project Life book. These posts will contain close-up photographs of the pages (so you can see them in greater detail) as well as some more anecdotes from our trip.

J

Beautiful North Carolina

Since arriving in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday, we've toured the Biltmore House (and gardens), climbed up to the top of Chimney Rock (which afforded us spectacular views of the mountains), and meandered along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway.

Even though I've only seen a small portion of North Carolina, I'm blown away by its beauty.

And the food here is wonderful, too. Yesterday, we dined at a fabulous BBQ joint; tonight, we ate at Cracker Barrel. You know you're in the South when your hotel's free breakfast includes biscuits and gravy. I'm hoping my jeans fit when I don them for the airplane ride home a week from now. :-)

Tomorrow, we're on the road again (for about 7 hours) heading to Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hugs,
J

Howdy!

Hi y'all!

We spent the weekend at the CMA Music Festival, and it was a blast! I loved seeing Lady Antebellum live; Brian enjoyed Dierks Bentley's performance. Originally, we'd only planned on attending the concerts on Friday and Saturday, but we had so much fun that we purchased tickets for Sunday night, too. I was in heaven listening (and singing along) to so much great country music.

Right now, Brian and I are driving to Asheville, North Carolina (a 4-hour drive from Nashville). There I am looking forward to exploring the expansive Biltmore Estate.

One more thing before I go...I drank a glass of sweet tea yesterday at a restaurant called Caney Fork. (Now I can check it off my Life List!) It was delicious! So too were the complimentary corn fritters. (Think corn donuts.) Yum! Oh, and we also tried alligator tail for the first time, and it was pretty good.

Have a great week!

Love,
J

Notre Dame Football Game

In celebration of Brian's 32nd birthday, we recently journeyed to Notre Dame to see the Fighting Irish take on the Utah Utes. But before I delve into the game itself, I want to mention a few of the football-related activities we experienced leading up to Saturday's game.


On Thursday evening, just after arriving on the Notre Dame campus for the first time, we attended the Brian Kelly Radio Show, taped in the Legends restaurant, which is located on campus in the stadium parking lot. (Brian Kelly, seated on the right, is in his first year--and hopefully not his last year--as head coach of the Notre Dame football team.)


On Friday, Brian and I walked down through the Notre Dame tunnel, the same tunnel that the players use during home games. You can't walk out onto the field (well, I guess you could, but you would be escorted out by police), but you can take pictures of the stadium.




On Saturday, prior to the game, we visited the impressive practice fields...


...and strolled through several parking lots where Irish (and Utah) fans were holding tailgate parties.


But we didn't fly 2,000 miles to see the Brian Kelly show (which "my Brian" regularly listens to on his iPhone), walk down the tunnel, take in the practice fields or check out the pre-game parties.


We flew 2,000 miles to see the Notre Dame football team play some ball. And they did just that! Although the Fighting Irish weren't favored to win, they beat the Utes, 28-3.


Experiencing a Notre Dame football game was so much fun, and I'm not even a football fan.

My favorite memories from the game include:

- Seeing Brian's face light up with excitement when the Irish scored

- The students donning "The Shirt," creating a sea of green in the student section

- Wearing lots of layers (For me: a long sleeve shirt, short-sleeve shirt, windbreaker, and sweatshirt)

- Donning ponchos when it started raining

- Drinking two mugs of hot chocolate (which kept me nice and warm)

- With each kick off, raising the index finger on our right hands to the sky and shouting, "G-o-o-o-o Irish!"

-The seniors engaging in a massive marshmallow fight at the end of the second quarter (Food and drink are not allowed in the stadium, so the seniors have to smuggle the bags of marshmallows in by duct taping the bags to their legs and arms and concealing them under their jackets and baggy pants.)

- Cheering on ND, chanting "We...are...N...D!"

- Laughing at the push ups in the student section after each touchdown

- High-fiving the ND fans around us each time the Fighting Irish scored

- Clapping along as the band played the fight song

- Listening to Brian talk football with nearby ND fans

- Watching the gleeful students storm the field after the game

And even though the football game was the highlight of our trip, we had many other enjoyable experiences while in Indiana and Illinois.

In the next week, I'll share pictures and thoughts from our campus tour, an ND basketball game, and our Segway tour of Chicago.

J