Amanda Rose blog

my weekend with my Erin Condren LIFE PLANNER

Well...look what landed in my lap Friday evening: my Erin Condren Life Planner.
I told you it would arrive any day.

A bunch of this past weekend was spent getting to know this planner, and testing out all sorts of jottings, pens, recording techniques, figuring out what I liked, didn't...you know the deal.  

Here are some shots from my weekend with my Erin Condren LIFE PLANNER:

top, left: I chose the 2013 life planner - collage cover which customizes the front and back of the planner with pictures you upload.  It looks a lot like my current header, as those are the things most making up my life right now.  I personalized it with my name, and the sentiment I'd most like my future plans to propel me toward: "She believed that she could, so she did."

top, right: I marked my first May week with my planner by printing out instagram shots from those days.  I really like how they look and how it ties the day to an image, so I'll probaly continue that all throughout December.

middle, left: a close-up look of the instagram I took once I had my new planner in my lap, with a little bit of journalling around it

middle, right: a quick weekly BLOG POST sticker I designed to match the month and function as a spot to plan the posts for that week

bottom, left: I love that just two days with this planner has brought my stamp mojo back! Maybe by summer it'll inspire me to whip up some new stamps for the shop! Who knows?!
(Those used above are Amy Tangerine's.)

bottom, right: I don't really like to "attack" my planner in advance.  I like to write/scribble/fuss once the week hits...so I'm big on removable stickies.  I'm already thinking about July (duh!) and labelling my weeks of project life. ;) (Those arrow stickies form Target.)

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I decided that I'm going to experiment with this planner -- no holds barred -- for the rest of May and June -- while school is still in session.  THEN...when the ever-loving SUMMER STARTS on June 27th (last day of school is June 26th) I will have developed some sort of system to make this work for me.

I'll let you know when I know!

Adios, amigos!

Erin Condren LIFE PLANNER Inspiration

I received an e-mail yesterday informing me that the personalized Erin Condren Life Planner I created for myself at the beginning of the month has been shipped and is on its way to me.

...any day now, any day now...

In the meantime, I've been obsessing over how others around the world have been using theirs. I've been gathering inspiration -- usually right before bed -- and drift to sleep with visions of my new planner and the future plans I'll fill it with dancing in my head.  

I'm a total paper-geek, but it's more than that...

I think I'm excited about what the planner symbolizes.  To me, this planner means thinking ahead and planning how to make the most of my summer...it means zeroing in on what I need to do once this school year is over (YES! 30 more work days)...it means propulsion...it means preparing for design school. EEK!  Not to mention, it's friggin' adorable. The design inspires me. The layout inspires me.  Erin Condren herself inspires me (as a woman, as a designer).

So hurry up, little planner companion!
I'm ready to fill you with future.

P.S. - Spy my current planner in this post. It's over in June. I was so due for an upgrade.

what a week

What a week!  Really, the past two weeks...

Between my crazy sentimental heart breaking into a million pieces, coming home last Monday to bombings in Boston, the stress of the New York Statewide Tests this and last week, weird sleep patterns, dreaming about him, my principal pressuring me about next year even though I know I'm not coming back, the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy (not me) really close to home, one of my students calling my other student's late dad a fat ass, a teacher in my school's husband had a stroke...I know we must all be trying to keep calm and...oh, what's that saying?  

Instead we're all a bit sad, stressed, and freaking out.  I know I am.

My upcoming weekend should help me a bit.  Tonight I'm with my girls Elisa & Natalie again like last week. Tomorrow: it's back to sew class and I finally get to hop on the sewing machine.
Sunday: a morning trip with dad & sis to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to see the spring blossoms should be Awesome McAwesome. Plants have been healing for me this year.

I try to count my blessings everyday...and if nothing else, I'm going to do what I can to point my mood in the same direction I pointed my iPhone for these photos: UP.
I'm hoping the same for you.

Happy Friday.
Have a lovely weekend!

their third.

To my two baby loves -- 

I am inifinitly grateful for your love in my life.
I am so happy I'm your mama.

Yes, I am a big sap.

Happiest 3rd Birthday.

xOxO,

your Mama 

P.S. -- After thought later on in the day:
My two babies are 3 years old!  What am I going to do when they're 18 and they're driving! ;)

PL 2013 |week 16|

Where yesterday's |week 15| spread took me all of last week to complete, today's |week 16| spread was printed, layed out, and embellished all yesterday morning.  

The first card I made for the spread was that Boston one.  I can't believe the week Boston's had.  This insert is my way to say "we are with you."

LOTS of digital journalling for |Week 16|.

...mainly because it was the week of terribly missing him, of emotional ups and downs...

One definite 'up' was my lucky thrift store dress find on Sunday afternoon! Yay!

My love affair with magnolias began.

I printed the pics and words from this post.

The right side of the spread:

My 'Week in Review' was switched up to a 4x4 card:

...and I pulled some colors from the eraser pic to coordinate.

Some images and words from my black&blue MAXi post made the top of the page.

Two images from my Friday & Saturday night out with the girls, drinking, eating, looking presentable was included. Both nights were a great change from my normal boring weekend nights of straight to bed.

The bottom portion of the spread was a homage to the freakin' tests my students took this week.

Their 'YOU CAN DO IT' pencils I passed out to each of them...

...and the 'TESTING SUCKS' insert.  It so does.

That's all for this spread.

I can't believe it's Monday.
Only eight more Mondays after this one of school left.
Let's do it! 

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For more of my past Project Life spreads, go HERE.

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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STEAL Magnolias

Since the Monday sister shenanigans that occurred last week on our walk/jog/run trail, every day that's felt like spring, my sister and I have gotten out to scale our neighborhood.

...and every time we have, we've seen more and more beauty blossoming in these magnolia trees.

The color, coupled with the blue sky...it's definitely pulling my inner color dial that spins wildly with the changing of seasons, trying to land on a go-to palette for the next few weeks/months.

The blues, pinks, and purples have already inspired a bunch of my recet instagram images, as you can see above.  My favorite part is this is not even a conscious decision.  The magnolia trees have no doubt left an impression, and effected me more so this year than any year before.

I think it has a lot to do with the break-up (1, 2, & 3).  I'm doing really well in a lot of ways, but am truly broken in very unobvious ways.  Things that normally wouldn't bother me, have lately.  I've gotten incredibly emotional after hours of strength.  I'll be ecstatic that it's spring one minute, then be flooded with one of our many spring memories, and need to stop and catch my breath the next. People around me talking to me, not talking to me, about him, about work, about their love problems...I physically can't seem to take any of it lately.  My sleeps's been off.  Dreams of him. Time feels frozen.

But everyday we walk...and every time I past these magnolia trees, I feel lifted.  All the struggles I've been going through in missing him, in being alone - -truly a palpable loneliness- - for those brief traveling moments walking under the magnolia tree, I am at peace.

I'm truly grateful for their presence in my life this year.

I had made up my mind that I wanted to steal a couple of magnolias.

At the end of our walk yesterday, that's what I did:

God bless.

Happy Thursday.

Thanks for visiting.

OUT TO SEW // 2

In my APRIL one little word {MAKE} quest to MAKE A KINOMO-STYLE ROBE, I set out yesterday for the second Saturday sewing class out of four at Sew Right.  

I plan to come to you every Sunday after and give a little post about what I wore and the experience and etc.  

I wore: (DEEP SIGH) again LOTS of layers.  Still my Uggs (blah). Still my Northface WINTER JACKET (boo).  The same go-to attire that I was wearin in January.  It's actually getting me quite annoyed.  I'm so ready to sundress and open-toe it up, weather!  Can you comply?!?! 

I didn't even bother photographing the outfit because I was so cranky that I was so cold. Poo.

The experience: was calming and exciting. I rode my new Biria and wrapped my Amy Tangerine bag around the handlebars.  The ride is only 20 minutes - at most - so I toughed it out. 

The tiny class of only seven gained one more lady, Patrice (who you see above already sewing her purple robe).  My fabulous first-impression of my sewing teacher, Pat, was only made truer yesterday.  She is funny, knows her sew stuff, and kept calling me precious.  

I still absolutely adore her.

My colorful, springy, floral print for the robe was a hit.

I learned how to pin your traced sewing pattern to the fabric.  I only pricked myself three times.
Note to self: bring band-aids next time. I learned a good fabric scissor is NECESSARY.  I learned how to cut fabric.  I learned the direction of the grain of fabric needs to be parallel to the selvage. Haa haa!  Sewing jargon. ;)

etc.: I was so grateful for this project yesterday.  Even though yesterday class was two-and-a-half hours longer than last week, it felt faster.  I'm so excited for the end product.  All my classmates are super nice, and were already talking about what we're going to make in the next class. :)

 

 

>> OUT TO SEW // 1

new series: SPRUCE UP YOUR PHOTOS w/ YOUR iPHONE // 1

Hello, my beloved readers and peepers!  'Tis Amanda here coming to you today with what I hope will be a regular feature here on the blog: a photo-tutorial of sorts giving you some insight to how I take a blah, normal photograph and SPRUCE IT UP a bit with some silly iPhone play and some app attacks.

For this first installment I'm going to demonstrate using a photo I took last week of our classroom garden:

It's fine, I suppose, but a little boring.  It wouldn't catch my eye enough to stop scrolling on instagram to get a closer, more detailed look.  ...and it DEF wouldn't garner many ♥ Like's.

So...here's how I made that above photo jazzier and more eye-catching...

1. Open up the photo in PicFx.

There's no particular reason why, but I always use PicFx as a first-step for any photo I plan to instagram.  I almost always use it to crop, and maybe add a light effect or two.  It supplies you with a good base image to work with before adding filters, other effects, etc.

2. Crop in PicFx.

If you notice in the original image, there's a lot of 'dead' school-space around the aluminum pan. It makes the picture look amateur, so cropping is necessary (besides the fact that the instagram ratio is square so you have to crop anyway).  Also, I DID NOT want that ugly shade-string in the final shot, so I made sure to leave that out of frame.

3. Add a light effect in PicFx.

PicFx has a great selection, and I like that you're able to increase or decrease the opacity and rotate them around the picture.

I choose "Leak 2" and with 3 clicks of the "Rotate" button, I positioned the light effect over the window shot, making it look like light was pouring in.
*Note: the "Rotate" button won't appear unless you click where it should be.  It's invisible until you make it appear.  Weird.

Save your newly cropped and light-effected image in PicFx, and...

5. Open it in AlienSky.

AlienSky is SUCH a cool app.  It can be a bit overwhelming when you first open it and try to use it, but like with most things, play play play.  I did most of my playing & exploring back in October when I used AlienSky or SpacePaint everyday for Photo-A-Day-October.

6. Add the Sun.

I chose the effect of "Bright Sun" and positioned it where I wanted in the window, looking like the sun was rising right in the path I was pointing my camera.  In actuality, I was facing west when I took the original photo, and the sun was rising on the complete other side of the building!  Haa haa!  An instagram friend of mine even commented on the photo: "Love that light."  Little did she know, it was completely fabricated!

7. Add a warming filter and post to Instagram.

Above is the final image I uploaded to instagram (looks a lot better than the original).  I don't remember what app I used to add the warming filter, but there are TONS you could use.  I might have even did it in Instagram itself with the "Rise" filter.  I think when you have a lot of green and cold-looking silver in a picture, it's important to warm up a photo.  Plus, it fit with the whole "sun" shining theme of the photo.

I paired the photo with the caption "humble beginnings" and there you have it!

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of SPRUCE UP YOUR PHOTOS and hope to come to you soon with a second installment.

Thanks, as always, for visiting.

*tear

I'm sad to have to wave goodbye to this much needed ten days.

I will not be getting a wide spread of time like this again until Summer.
Summer vacation is 60 work days away.
Yes, I counted.

I know that is not a tremendous amount of time, but looking at it from the start, it is.

But here we are, teachers: in the home stretch.

I hope the warmer weather helps.
I hope the promise of summer at the end of this home stretch helps.
I hope the checkpoints of happiness (like Jimmy Fallon one month from today) come quickly, and feel lengthy.

I'll be bloggin' my way through it all here.  
I'm aiming to get through these next 3 months with positivity and productivity.

Love you, Spring Break. Miss you already.

This guy's goin' to be more upset than me, I think.

Mission SKINS and PRITS

I get excited when March hits.  March means Spring.  Spring means almost Summer.  Almost Summer means almost bikini/beach season.  Almost bikini/beach season marks the end to my 4-month movement break I usually give myself from November to February.

Granted, I still love movement and activity (did ZUMBA on wii throughout January...see HERE), but I don't make it a point to workout in those dark, cold winter months.  

With March, I start to crave activity.  I start to sweetly desire a more toned, fit figure...one I know I've been semi-neglecting with dounuts and couch lounges. (Perhaps it's the fantasy of all my spring dresses I want to debut!)

Whatever the reason, March hits, and I hit the ground running. Last year, I kicked it off with #amileeveryotherdayinmarch, and THIS year, I'm calling it Mission 'Skins' & 'Prits'.  
(It made its way into my lastest Project Life post.)

Skins and Prits by the way, everybody, is just a silly saying my sister and I have for 'skinny' and 'pretty'.  We just say it stupidly to each other when we workout, kind of like 'Fit' and 'Fab'.

(NOTE: I have no desire to be 'skinny'; I also acknowledge that my body type is one not capable of being 'skinny' so it wouldn't even matter if I did desire to be skinny, which again I don't.  I also know skinny/thin/whatever does not equal pretty. It's just something stupid we say.)

With this mission, I'm just happy being active.  I love that word: active.  I love activity.  I'm happy when part of my day is spent jumping around. :)

I'm deciding to take on this mission by following the INSANITY program for as long as I want to, I guess.  Probably until it's warm enough for me to jog or bike outside.

I also wanted to start eating healthier, and making better food choices throughout my day.  
No Weight Watchers plan, meetings, or fees (although I seriously considered it...WW helped me in the past).
No calorie counting (although I seriously considered that too...downloaded the app and everything).

I decided to just keep a food log.
Eat when I'm hungry, don't when I'm not hungry.
Eat often, so I always feel satisfied.
Eat fruit.  Work veggies in.
Just log it, so I can review it at day's end.

No fuss. No frantic number crunching.  Just balanced life.
I'm 28, and am only now figuring this out. 

Maybe I'll update here on the blog. Maybe not.
You can definitely catch my daily progress on
instagram, as it is my quick-snap central.

The hash is #MissionSKINSnPRITS.

That's all!

Let's get off our butts today!

See ya soon!