a sampling of the business cards I collected at ALT

It’s been a really hectic week and I’ve been pretty slow to recover from my cold. I struggled to post, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m sick or if I’m suffering from some sort of post-ALT paralysis. So many ideas, no idea where to begin.

And speaking of ALT, I’ve been enjoying reading all of the recaps this week. But I think my favorite post is a list of steps to get over post-ALT depression. Pretty funny stuff.

Here are a few other favs from this week:

• I totally don’t need another thing on my daily to-do list, but I just signed up for a 30 day photography class. I think that means we have an assignment EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
• I’m fascinated by these vases.
• I don’t usually like to pay for kids apps, but this It’s a Small World iPad app is pretty adorable and easily keeps Jenna entertained while I shower every morning. Priceless.
• Have you heard about the Low-Commitment Project? I’m pretty crazy about these sandwiches.

This morning Jason made a very specific request for dinner: pancakes in the dining room. We eat pancakes all the time, so that’s nothing new, but the dining room? We never eat in there. I guess that’s why he took one look at tonight’s pancake and toppings spread  and exclaimed ‘it’s happy fun special night!’ Wow, what a way to make me feel like an awesome mom. Thanks, Jason. It was a happy, fun, special night.

It’s easy to focus on the goal, but sometimes it’s nice to capture all of the little steps along the way.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

January is nearly over and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that we’ve yet to send thank you cards to friends and relatives who gave gifts to J+J over the holidays. I’m not the only one, right?

With my trip behind me, I’ve committed to getting them in the mail this week, and today I made one big leap in the right direction: I made custom notecards out of Jenna’s recent art.

Here are a few examples:

Here’s how I made them:

1. I selected 4 recent drawings and scanned them into the computer. I opened the files in Photoshop and cropped them to 4 x 4 inches (300 dpi).
2. In Photoshop, I created a template based on the size of the notecards (the folded cards are 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 so my template was 5 1/2 x 11). I also set up a custom print size in the Page Set-up menu in the Print window.
3. I centered the scanned drawing so that it would print along the bottom half of the page and added the text and a very light border. I had to print a couple of trial runs to get the positioning just right.
4. Step 4 – writing and mailing. That’s the hard part …

I took very, very few pictures – pretty amazing for me. But here are a couple of scenes from the past 4 days:

Winter Wonderland Party

Tara Wilson and me dressed for the party

Tell Your Story wall at the mini party hosted by Blurb

Entering into Paris at the mini party hosted by Pinhole Press

Flower print from my printmaking workshop with Eva Jorgensen of Sycamore Street Press

Last night I was packing for my trip and heard some giggling and whispering coming from Jenna’s room. She often sings, plays with her dolls or reads aloud at night, so it’s not unusual to hear her after bedtime. But when I went upstairs to check on her, I found this little scene of adorable. I wasn’t sure whether to send them to their rooms or let them continue their drawing session for awhile. So, what did I do? I went and got my camera. I’m going to miss you guys!

Over the weekend I started trying on outfits for the Alt Design Summit. All of the talk on Twitter had me worried that I wasn’t putting enough thought into my wardrobe, so I decided I needed a trial run.

I learned a couple of things during this exercise:

1. I’m really bad at taking pictures of myself. Centering and focusing became somewhat optional, more so as I continued to move through outfits. All this time reading Joslyn’s ‘An Outfit Deconstructed‘ posts had me thinking it was easy, but clearly I need a workshop on how to document my wardrobe. Maybe a topic for Alt 2013?

2. I love playing dress up just as much as my daughter, who, btw, participated in the above photo shoot by dressing up as a monster and referring to me as ‘the princess’ while she ran around trying to capture me. What can I say, I just went with it. If you see someone at Alt wearing a paper crown, it’s probably me.

3. I need more accessories. More. Enough said.

]]> http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/01/17/alt-outfits-maybe/feed/ 1 juleed ALT_oufits2 http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/01/16/customized-journals/ http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/01/16/customized-journals/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:20:12 +0000 juleed http://warmhotchocolate.com/?p=9573 ]]> I’m really looking forward to this week’s workshops at the Alt Conference. I’ve signed up for two: Paper Crafts and Printmaking. I’m not sure how I only just found this out, but the paper craft class is going to be taught by Patricia of A Little Hut, a site that has provided me lots of inspiration over the past couple of years. In fact, one of my top posts is about a series of cards I made based on a tutorial on her site. So needless to say, I am super excited about seeing what Patricia has in store for us.

This weekend I got a bit of a jump start on the whole paper crafting thing by making a few custom Moleskine journals to take to the conference. Yes, even my notebooks will match my outfits. And have a mentioned my new iPad case?

I’m heading to Alt Summit next week so much of this weekend will likely be spent packing and preparing. So excited and a wee bit hyper-focused on the upcoming festivities. 

I think nearly all of my time on the web this week was spent obsessing about (or reading about others obsessing about) planning for the conference, but I managed to squeeze some non-conference-related surfing into my week. Here are my favs:

• This outdoor movie-watching set up found via Aesthetic Outburst has me completely envious.
• I’m not sure where I’d put it, but I’d love to have this in my home.
• How did I just now find out about the photo a day challenge? Hopefully it’s not too late to start.
• Thinking about doing this craft with Jenna this weekend.
• Seriously dreaming about a more decorated and lived-in looking home, including this living room and this kitchen eating area.

Happy Weekend!!