Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

PL 2013 |weeks 45 & 46|

|Weeks 45 & 46| made up the month fo November so far, and for me so far, it can be summed up in three words: hermit. watercolor. cold.

Plenty of images from these pages can be found in this school / life post.

My two babies, above: one peeking out of her box, and the other interuptting a bedtime session of watercolor painting.  Hmrph!

Some more watercolor: 5 Things Making Me Happy the first week of November.

I watched that DWTS "What does the Fox say?" routine over and over again.  It was so inspiring!

Oh yeah...and I turned 29.

The days that followed felt cold, solemn, and thrusted me into uber hermit mode full blast.  I have wanted my home, my watercolor paints, plenty of carbs, and cat company.  That's really it.

I took a much needed walk to the New York Public Library on day, and it felt like a new friend. I since have gotten myself a library card, and have taken out 3 art books.

I got pooped on by a pigeon. 

...and oh yeah: my dad almost died.  He brushes it off since he got out of the hospital, but yeah, he almost did.  A routine cold turned into cellulitis of the septum, and if I hadn't taken him to the ER when I did, it could have backed up, and sepsis could have leaked into the brain causing bacterial meningitis, and often, death. 

It was incredibly scary, but I think I handled it well.  I was glad I was able to keep him company. We watched a free movie from hulu.com.

My Project Life's been treated like a photo-album journal the past few spreads,
but I guess that's what it has had to be lately.  I still love it, and I believe that's what counts.

Thanks for viewing.

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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PL 2013 |October Highlights|

Here are the highlights from October put into the pages of my Project Life album, mostly in the form of journalling on pictures. 

 Above you see a little journalling from the first few days of the month.

The next page has on it some of my October graphic design projects for school...

...and pumpkin painting, a field trip to a design exhibit at the Cooper Union, and the new-to-me NutriBullet.

Sushi & my two kitties to start Columbus Day weekend; a stupid stubbed toe to end it.

Some randoms from the middle:

 Some fall weekending and our Saturday routine:

 Except that Saturday, dad crashed the car, and it was anything BUT routine:

 Nearing towards the end of October, and the end of my 28th year, and this:

The above sentiment hit me hard in the month of October, maybe knowing my 29th was on its way.  It sounds a little depressing, but it's a good thing to feel, I think, because its a motivator.  This time next year, I goal to be in my very own place! (gasp! there it is! more on that to come.)

 

Dancing With The Stars has been my show (after The Walking Dead of course).

 Then my favorite: Halloween.  I reminisced on past Halloweens.  I wore my Pop Art Halloween costume.

 I felt grateful to have some place to wear it...graphic design in an aqua wig is tons of fun. ;)

 At the end of October 2013, above was what I was currently doing.  I think the use of my 'currentlies' stamp at the end of every month is going to be so impactful in years to come. (I know some of you have been asking me to sell it, and I talked a little about that here.  Let me know what you think.)

Thanks for stopping by, readers and peepers!

Have a happy happy Tuesday!

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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PL 2013 |September Highlights|

We are a few days away from Novemeber, lovies, and here is my September.  Haa!  This past weekend, I worked (hard!) on getting the highlihgts of my past September into my Project Life album.

I plan to do the same this upcoming weekend for October, and then be all caught up, just in time for birthmonth November.

[30 Days of Lists posts here]

[Week in the Life album all recorded here.]

My last bit of summer.

Ah, September brought school...

I love my new school. :)

Lovely last September weekend of 2013...

[read about the 5k Electric Run here]

That's it!

I'm spent from a full day of filling my brain with graphic design knowledge, and
failing miserably trying to find a cute and witty way to end this post. 

I can't even tell if I'm speaking English.

I'm going to push Publish now.

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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PL 2013 |weeks 34 & 35|

Have you ever walked into someone's office and saw on their desk a heaping pile of papers one on top of the other, this way and that, in several stacks, all piled up?  That's my |weeks 34 & 35|.  All my photos were printed, but they were just shoved on top of one another in whatever pocket they'd fit.

A real mess.

The important thing about |weeks 34 & 35| is they're done, but I struggled with them.  It's really all |week 34|'s fault because it fell behind, so |35| had to also be lagging.

Whatever.  Some weeks are like that.

Some weeks -- the most noteable occurence is your hot date with a Silhouette Cameo machine (that you won for FREE!!!!!!...I'm still like whoa.)

A lot of selfies because I was by myself a lot in |week 34|...

...just keeping a steady pace, moving from one day to the next, slowly and carefully.

Happy hour wrecked me that Friday night.

|week 35|:

Again, lots of boring everyday stuff.  Also, the first week it hit me: the autumn blues.

So, naturally a list of little sads came out of it, inspired by this lady's list of the same name.

Started majorly feeling like Fall...

two cards were given to me:

the right side continued the random, collected and piled up images from the week:

(of course) end of August currentlies:

I loved this Friday morning outfit-sketching moment of |week 35|:

an engagement party:

...and a Saturday night, last day of August memory of chasing down an ice cream truck:

These are how my weeks manifested in my Project Life. Not my most styled, but the real thing, made as easy as I could make it, and I'm still sure my grandchildren looking through these pages years from now will think they're awesome.

"Hey," they'll say, "grandma once chased down an ice cream truck..."

...and then in unison, go "Coooooool."

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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30 Days of Lists | 1 to 6

Well HI, fellow listophiles! Amy and Kam's 30 Days of Lists challenge is in full swing being that today is the 7th of September.  Above has been my last six days of lists!

Remember my approach this time around, and how I was going to write a list in the 'negative space' of an instagram photo each day? It's been working out quite nicely.  (Phew!) The next three Saturdays I shall be posting the previous week's set of lists and talking a little bit about how nicely it's actually been working out.  

Even though you might have seen my lists on the 30 Days of Lists flickr page or on instagram, each Saturday is where you'll see them all in one place and where I'll talk a little more in depth about my technique and the process. :)

Here we go...

List #1

List #1 had me thinking all the way back to January 2013, and what has entered my life since then. 1 and 2 on the list are pretty life-changing events, 3 was a perspective change, and 4 and 5 were two fabulous materialistic things that came into my life this year. Oh, that karaoke.

I was orignally going to write the list with a black SMASH marker, but thought the black ink would be too overpowering for the image, so I decided on a white Sharpie Paint Pen.  It's a little hard to read, but was the right choice.

List #2

List #2 was written over an instagram image of a project life page from |week 28| of PL 2012.  It had great negative space to work with, which is why I chose it for the blurb book in the first place.

I used a blue SMASH marker to write the list.

List #3

I loved the prompt for List #3! I could think of so many more things younger me would like about current me, but I ran out of space.  For this list, I used a black SMASH marker and wrote script.

My cat walked over this list before the ink dried, so you can sort of see a smudge after the (4). Someone wrote on the #30Lists facebook page about smudges and wanting the lists to look perfect or something.  I must admit I struggle with this, but I've learned to let go.  Sometimes, I give myself an extra five minutes to try to fix it, but almost every time I do, I end up making it worse.  I've learned to see the smudge, accept the smudge, and move on from the smudge. (You probably wouldn't have noticed it if I didn't point it out anyway.  Am I right?) 

List #4

This was the first list that I didn't write over.  Instead, I typed up my 1 to 5 on my typewriter, then paper-sliced them into skinny typewriter strips, and adhered them to the page in a nice, linear fashion.  I like this approach and expect to see more of it on upcoming lists. :)

List #5

I worry about so much, but here are the main ones, I guess.  Yes, the last bullet makes me want to sing that song too.  I used a black SMASH marker, and printed the list instead of scripted it since the background was kind of speckled and I wanted the list to be legible.

List #6

'List #6 - Rules to break' brought out the inner rebel in me.  I only stuck to three jots for this list, because I wasn't sure how or where I was going to write on this image.  Unlike the easy, linear, organized-looking typewriter strips from List #4, I 'rebelled' in a way and broke my own design rules.   So with my white Sharpie paint pen, I filled up the three available spaces with long, fat, full lettering all twisty and warped.  Not my style, usually, but I like the end result. 

 

That concludes this edition of 30 Days of Lists | Sept 2013 by Amanda Rose.

Next Saturday I'll come to you with Lists 7 to 14 - all in one place (HERE).

See ya later!

See the cover and intro/outro pages of my blurb book for this round HERE.

PL 2013 |week 33|

Hi, |week 33|, from Sunday, August 11th to Saturday, August 16th.

Amazing pictures were not taken this week, yet somehow this spread was made:

I explained the week on a 12x4 photo at the bottom of this page, and used the words from my this week... post, but mostly it was evening jogs with my sister in fall weather...

...a crazy close-the-bar night out to Croxley's for wings:

...where I woke up the next morning and felt like m head got run over by a truck.  Not fun!

...and as the rest of the insert above goes, it felt like fall in New York, I had 6 doctors appointments to go to in 4 days, won a Silhouette Cameo, discovered the fun of Flipagram, and came up with the term 'hangy bangies'.

I laminated the letter I wrote to my mugswap assignment.

I also filled a 2x2 coin protector page with the mini version of the pages I created for my '30 Days of Lists' book.  

I'm happy I got my format figured out and I'm really excited to start 30 Days of Lists.

The right side included the mug swap package I sent out along with that letter (full post on that to come soon)...

...and a 'KEEP CALM' sentiment I created, along with an insert saying all I think once it's August: "almost September".

playing around with neon and ink:

The last two inserts were of the sweetest BBQ I was invited to last minute:

I was so incredibly grateful to be a part of it.

Thanks for viewing!

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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PL 2013 |finale page| of Album 1, and |title page| of Album 2

left is the |title page| of Album 2 ; right is the |finale page| of Album 1

Has anyone ever successfully fit a whole year's worth of Project Life in one Project Life binder?  
I tried last year, but by July, I knew I just couldn't.  Maybe the binders are meant to hold only 6 months if you make a spread every week.  Hmmm...my two albums look like this:

I'm already a month and a half in album 2, and just last week I was able to work on the |finale| and |title| pages. 

I think they're an important edition to giving your albums a cohesive 'start' and 'end' feel. I purposely keep them less photo-oriented and more about hopes and goals (if the |title page|), or reflections and wrap-up thoughts (if the |finale page|).  

For these two mid-year pages I included one photo of me showing...kind of...'my status', and then all cohesive and fun insert cards that made sense to what I'm currently feeling mid-year.

Album 1's |finale page|:

I used lots of Me & My Big Ideas products, and they convey who I was at the end of album 1: a tired teacher, so ready to relish in Summer 2013 and capture it all on her iPhone. ;)

I naturally designed with glitter and sparkle papers and embellishments because it makes it feel more like a celebration.  

I used my typewriter Dora to journal on that MAMBI SUMMER card.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.'  Yep.  Adios, January through June!

This card from one of the past Studio Calico Project Life kits was fitting for the spread, and to better coordinate with the pops of yellows, I traced 'BLESSING' with a Martha Stewart yellow glitter glue stick.

That ready. set. Summer. insert was made by trimming the background out of that photo and gluing my remaining selfie to that fine gold glitter paper. (I love that paper.)

Don't get me started on that pink chunky sparkle paper. DON'T! ...because I could probably write a 50-page thesis on why it's so fabulous.  I can't even go there!  

The 'Adios! PL 2013 | Album 1' embellishment was designed by me on Photoshop Elements, made with some coordinating colors...and the HEAT WAVE insert, also MAMBI.

Uh! ...that chunky pink sparkle paper...

Both those bottom 6x4 inserts are MAMBI cards. "LAUGH MORE' was from an Amy Tangerine roller stamp.  The star was from Studio Calico's recent August Scrapbook kit, and the 'PL STUFF' was added with Simple Stories SN@P alphas.

To the right, I included  the 'I WANT' card from my graphic design school, and the 'go places. see stuff.' card from one of my work friends that said some of the kindest things about me leaving teaching, and going on this new venture. ♥

Now, on to...

Album 2's |title page|:

I actually designed this page first, then coordinated the |finale page| to this one.

That "and then..." card leading the way was a no-brainer. How could it not? ;)

That raised gold circle journal space was one of my most favorite cards in one of the past Studio Calico Project Life kits!  I knew I wanted to use it for a special spread, and showcase it, so I cut it out of the original 3x4 card it was on and placed it against that pretty black&white paper. 

Black and white, pink and yellow, gray (grey?), and glitter and sparkle...kept it going....

My one little word for 2013 is {MAKE} so I made sure to include it like I also did in the |opening pages| of Album 1.  I made that circular ALBUM 2 tag on Photoshop Elements. 

That LET'S DO THIS insert was the inspiration for this spread.  It was the first card I knew I wanted, and so it's what kicked off the whole design.

I collect fortunes from fortune cookies and Yogi Tea tags.  This one seemed fitting for a |title page| to a yet to be completed album.

The amount of glitter I paired it with also seemed fitting. ;)

Finally, I cut a 6x4 piece of that awesome 'months' paper to insert in the spread, and with my pink and yellow Mr. Sketch markers 'nixed' the months that Album 2 wouldn't be covering.  Haa haa! No April, no June, and thank goodness no January!  I like the end result.

Forever and always: thank you for visiting, but especially for viewing this post because I feel this spread captures my individual style pretty well, maybe more so than a lot of other spreads.  It's my most recent paper creation, and I love how with each passing month, I'm tapping further into my style and what I want to say as a designer, scrapbooker, and memory-keeper.

So thanks.  Thanks for witnessing it all with me. This stuff's too fun. :P

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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PL 2013 |week 32|

Howdy, |week 32| in my Project Life album.  

This week - Sunday, August 4th to Saturday, August 10th - was split into two parts for me.

The first part was the 4th, 5th, and 6th: Tomas's last three days in New York, where my time was spent with him, being in the moment, feeling whatever it was I was going to feel, and then eating with him and seeing him off.  

See all that here:

It felt fitting for the first insert of the week to be that Maya Angelous quote. I came across it at just the right time, and it kind of summed up my days reuniting with him.

I wore my Nana's purple pants to the last Sunday dinner with him and his family.  I found them in the rummage of her stuff last month.  I felt sooo good in them, and love when I feel she's 'with' me.

Below is a little card-riddle I snapped while at Kinkos with him shipping some of his packed boxes; and of course, the other side of that Studio Calico calendar card. ♥

Do you get the riddle?  What's missing? ;)

Tomas tried to faceTime me while he was in the other room, and I remember thinking that journalled sentiment.  It hit me a bunch of times how far away he was going to be real soon.

On Monday, August 5th, I had myself a cute little bike ride from Floral Park to Forest Hills, a route I used to bike often, but just with my other bike.  See a quick video of that ride at the end of this post.

Above is the new rainbow water color map art in his old lobby that I became obsessed with.  I've been gravitating to all things 'map' since knowing he was going to move 2,000 miles away.  Like, geography is my new fixation.  The art really is beautiful, though.

I finished off the first part of |week 32| with a baby picture I found of him while looking through his albums, keeping him company in his childhood home while he packed to move from it.  I included a baby one of me too, because look at the two of us! My goodness!

Next to the baby pictures were the meals of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  The last three I had with him, his last few in New York.

The second part of |week 32| consisted of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th -- where my summer vacation life started to calm down again, look a little more routine (work in craftroom, pack stamp orders, web surf, blog, get back to eating right, take kitty pics, and hunt for the mugswap).

Download your own 'Week in Review' card here.

See the whole bunch of pics from my 'Week in the Life' prep here. 

My sister and I had us a little bike photo session in the park.  Those are two of the few picture we took.  My sister's adorable.

such a cheeser! ^

Thank for viewing, everybody!

See you soon.

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

For more on Project Life itself, go HERE.

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two Flipagrams

Flipa...wha?  Huh?  Flipagram.  It's a new app that allows you to turn Instagram photos into fun, captivating video slideshows in 4 easy steps.  Really, it's cake.  The hardest part was weeding through the thousands ( !! ) of Instagrams I have. Sheesh!

The called my first Flipagram 'LIVE & MAKE ART OF IT', because that's what I do.  It's a string of my Project Life images:

music is "Us"  by Regina Spektor

Important to note: if you're uploading your Flipagram to Instagram, then only 15 seconds of your Flipagram will upload.  I've been having trouble with that myself, but whatevs.

Next one...

The second Flipagram I made is called [ shoe shot ] because damn I take a lot of 'em (hence the need for a stamp - but sorry, it's sold out):

music is "Cassette Tape" by Katie Costello

There you have it, girls and toys, Flipagrams.  I mean, crazy.  Every day some new technology blows my socks off.  I truly feel like Penny from Inspector Gadget with this iPhone in my hand, I swear.

It's really really cool.

Catch ya later!

Amanda Rose on Project Life | finding 'Beauty in the Boring'

Welcome to a new series on this blog space I'm calling "Amanda Rose on Project Life" where I come to you with a conversation on a specific aspect of Project Life-ing.  

I have been an avid Project Lifer since January 2012 and feel like I've finally found a life-recording process that I can incorporate into my life on a regular basis.  Twenty-two months after embarking on this memory-keeping method, I still find it as fun as I did on day one, and have worked this creative habit effortlessly into the flow of my week.  It's just become 'what I do'. :) 

With that being said, I've noticed a pattern of particular problems I've run into, or a theme that would keep arrising week after week in my Project Life spreads.   I've created this series to talk about them here.

The first conversation for this series I'd like to have with you is entitled finding 'Beauty in the Boring'.  This is a very important theme I'd catch myself repeating in my head every week when choosing photos to incorporate into a weekly spread.  ...find 'Beauty in the Boring'...  To me, Project Life is all about capturing those moments when nobody is looking...those quick, 3-second moments that make your life different from anybody else's.  If you ask me, those are the aspects of your world worth letting your future grand-babies read about and explore.

Some examples from my world of these moments can be seen below:

from my PL 2013 |week 19| 

The above insert with my tangled up hair in a hair tie is exactly what I'm talking about.  It was a quick sentiment I had that week after undoing my day's hairstyle, and to me it was recordable.  The insert fit perfectly in the week's grey-theme page.  The this-and-that-way hair lines made for a great space to journal on.  A nasty hair-filled hair tie -- beautiful? I think so.

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from my PL 2013 |week 16|

This close-up of fresh new pencils with fresh different colored erasers insert is so totally boring, but it was the moment right before the statewide test craziness began, and to me captures all the beauty of being in elementary school, being anxious for a test, but excited for new school supplies.

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from my PL 2012 |week 29|

What could be more boring than hanging shelves?  Well, it made up a lot of that week last year, so I felt like I had to include it.  It's boring alright, but with some strategically placed graphic elements, and coordinating colors with the rest of the page, it became art. ...life art. ...finding 'Beauty in the Boring'. Boom.

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from my PL 2013 |week 15|

|Week 15| this year must've been really boringly beautiful because here's three inserts of three mundane moments right next to each other proving my point.  

The first one is down at what I'm drinking: a banana smoothie.  ...and while taking pictures of what you eat and drink is something majorly routine and boring, the presentation, and what you convey about the feeling of it can be made into a beautiful edition for a PL spread.  For me here, it was the 'drink' of the season...what I looked forward to making for myself after a long and crazy-pants teaching day...and the colors worked for the spread, the background worked...it just worked.  

Next to it is our classroom garden's first sprout.  Although it's boring and many might think "Yeah, so what? A plant it growing"  it was amazing for my students and myself.  Exciting, even.  Boring, but so miraculously beautiful. Find it, capture it.

The third insert, that yellow birdhouse -- I took that picture while on a walk...a boring, same ol' trek I'd take after every dinner in the spring.  Nothing to write home about.  Then I saw that birdhouse and well, it's a birdhouse. Up in a tree, where you usually see them.  Not fireworks. Not a parade. A birdhouse.  But I liked its color.  I like the contrast of it in front of the background.  I thought it beautiful, so it made it into my Project Life album.

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I could post several more examples of finding 'Beauty in the Boring', but I think I want to wrap up now.  Basically, what I've come to realize is it's all in what you notice and appreciate.  It's all in what you perceive to be recordable.  I supposed I don't have very many standards on what is. Haa haa! ...or something else: perhaps the expression 'stop and smell the roses' has always made more sense to me than I thought.  Perhaps this quote from the great poet Li-Young Lee has always stuck with me and translates into my Project Life every week:

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What do you think?

Where do you find 'beauty in the boring' or as Lee calls it 'poetic pressence'?