Wordless Wednesday: Today, for a Moment, I Saw the Sun

2014 House Honey Do List

The house is now 18 years old and we've lived here for almost 8 years. When a home gets that old, there are bound to be things that need redoing or repairing, right?

Well...I've decided that we're going to start attacking things room by room.

In order to get that done, I included a room by room break down of projects in this year's blog planner.

To keep us working on the projects I've laid out, I've decided to put a truncated version in blog form. I've prioritized what we can realistically complete (and afford to complete) this year. I'll be checking the items off on this post as we go and posting our progress along the way. (Keep in mind, some projects need warmer weather than others and some require budgeting...so, we won't necessarily be finishing them in order.)

Here's the plan:

Master Suite :

1. Purge clothing
2. Hang closet mirror
3. Reorganize closet shelving
4. Hang closet door
5. Sand and repaint bathroom window wells


Den :

1. Clean desk
2. Purge bookshelf
3. Fix desk chair


Stairs/Foyer/Main Hallway :

1. Wedding photo gallery
2. Stairway photo collage
3. "Established" placard
4. Main hallway photo collage


Kitchen :

1. Chalkboard measuring conversion board
2. Lazy Susans in pantry shelving
3. Can dispensers in pantry
4. Spice jars in convertible pantry


Family Room/Living Room :

1. Photo frames on living room tables
2. Redecorate mantel
3. Redecorate entertainment unit


Utility :

1. Repair pocket door
2. Repair broken hallway baseboard


Crop Room/Closet

1. Purge closet dresser
2. Purge closet shelving
3. Design bin system for closet shelving
4. Mod podge dresser
5. Fabric bin table


Scrapbook Room/Closet

1. Sort closet memorabilia
2. Reorganize photo storage
3. Scan closet stored photos


Darian's Room

1. Purge clothing
2. Purge toy box
3. Bin/shelving system for desk


Upstairs Hallway

1. Hallway photo collages
2. Replace photos in existing frame


Basement

1. Reorganize storage room/add totes
2. Purge and organize bunker


Garage/Yard/Shed

1. Replace front walk post lights
2. Motion sensor sprinkler for courtyard
3. Remove rock from garden area


That makes it official...we will accomplish some clean up and repair items this year and I will get some of my planned decorating changes off the ground. I'm particularly excited about the changes coming to our entryway and staircase!

Scrapbook Room Clean Up

Between the end of October and Christmas Eve, I pretty much live in the two room suite that serves as my crafting home. The scrapbook room and crop room receive a ton of abuse during this short sixty days. Over the years, I have overhauled the scrapbook room a couple of times in order to make myself more organized space for my crafting.

As January is Organization and Planning month, I took the time to clean up the scrapbook room and do a makeover of the scrapbook closet. I also moved scrapbooking supplies out of the crop room in preparation for this year's planned crop room redo. I plan on officially changing the crop room into my sewing room and redoing both the room and the closet in order to better organize my fabric and supplies. That means that completely separating out the two rooms is the first step I needed to take.

For as organized as my scrapbook room usually is, the end of the year always makes it look like a bomb went off. It was a pretty good disaster when I started working on the clean up last week. I promised to show off the ugly yesterday. So...here's what I started with.

Isn't it pretty?

I like an open concept since I work with the theory that I won't use my supplies unless I can see them. This means that any organizing I do has to either leave things out in the open or put them in labeled containers. Most of this has already been completed in prior reorganizations, but things needed put back in their homes.

I was almost too overwhelmed to get started. But...I fired up the Spotify and started mentally dividing the room.

My first stop was paper organization. I found a link to I Love My Three Sons a while back for organizing paper scraps into magazine holders. I loved the idea since it seemed a lot more manageable than  my scrap drawer.

Cramped drawer that was too small for any 12" scraps.

I had previously sorted my unbound patterned paper into Cropper Hoppers on a rolling cart. I decided that I could condense some of the colors together and use excess Cropper Hoppers to reorganize my scrap storage. Patterned paper was moved to the lower shelf and scraps took up a new home on the top shelf. 

Much better access to scrap paper.

Once I had the paper wrangled, it was time to start working one desk at a time.

With the computer desk, I used a previously empty plastic storage box to make a home for my loose vinyl. I also cleaned out the out of control photo paper drawer and stack my 4x6" photo paper above the printer for easier access.

The west side desk didn't need a lot of overhaul, mostly just a clean up. I did ditch my old homemade light box and instead moved all of my Project Life materials to the top of the plastic drawers. I plan on making a new, sturdier lightbox some time this year. I also emptied and put away my rolling cart, and purged some products that I know I won't use from the desk basket.

The east side desk was the easiest out of the whole room. I just had to clean up the detritus on the counter top. Most of it was projects in progress that got reorganized and relocated to the newly organized closet. I also hung my magnetic strip between the desk and the hanging cabinet for easier storage of some of the metal tins.

Just for fun...a low resolution panoramic photo of the finished scrap room.

The closet was a bit more work. In all honesty, it's still not quite done. I have some shopping to do during the year to streamline a few ideas.

By the way, nothing sucks more than trying to take pictures of a closet...except for maybe working in that closet. I got a bit claustrophobic a couple of times.

The closet has been full of odds and ends for the last few years. A lot of the things are pieces and parts from previous scrap room remodels. I have more plastic tackle boxes than any one person would know what to do with and a nearly equal number of stacking plastic shelves. I relocated all of that to the two top side shelves to get it out of my way.

My primary goal was to reorganize the closet to make storing photos and memorabilia easier. I needed to get it all out of the crop room so that I will have an easier time with that remodel down the line. 

I moved the boxes of my own personal memorabilia to the upper shelf at the west side wall (pictured above). I still need to go through my memorabilia boxes and get things organized within them, but this is a good start.

The east wall (pictured above) will still need some work, but it's on the right track. I plan on using the main shelf for memorabilia storage. I'll be getting more containers to stack in this area, but for now it's holding photo albums that need photos scanned. Once scanning is complete, these go back to my parents' house and the room on the shelf will be freed up for my memorabilia boxes.

The boxes and totes on the ground below the shelf are full of memorabilia. Those will get reorganized into the new boxes later this year as well. I'm excited for it to all look neat and tidy and matching.

The center shelving units took the most work. I cleaned out several random boxes and organized the user's manuals that remained. I relocated all of my empty albums to the right side shelving unit in order free up the left for photo storage. I plan to get more of the black boxes to unify the look. Photos will then be stored on the second through fourth shelves of the right side unit.

The memorabilia currently stored in the baskets on the left side will be moved to the east wall shelf once I get the boxes for that area. The bottom shelf will be used to hold projects in progress. Right now they're kind of in a piled mess, but they too will be stored in memorabilia boxes while I'm putting them together.

Currently I have cards for the date night box that need cut, pet photo albums that need completing and three in progress Project Life albums.

In addition to the empty albums and album kits I'm storing on the right side, I relocated all of my magazines to this area. These are all of my back issues of Creating Keepsakes and other magazines that I use for layout ideas.

And there you have it. A much cleaner scrapbook room and closet. I'll be even happier when I get the storage boxes I need to organize and store the photos and memorabilia. That will be yet another fun organizing project. But...I have some good ideas on how to get started there.

How do you keep your craft supplies organized?

Summary Sunday: Winter Carnival Edition

We just got back home from a trip up to McCall Winter Carnival so I'm getting this post in right under the wire to still make it count as a Summary Sunday and not a Summary Monday. We went up with Collin's sister and her family and had a wonderful time. We ate a very filling breakfast up at The Pancake House and then walked around town looking at sculptures. We had originally planned on eating at my Uncle and Aunt's pizza restaurant (Growler's), but we were far too full from our late breakfast (in fact, I haven't eaten anything else and I probably won't before bedtime...so much French toast...).

Wow...it's been a LONG time since I've done a Summary Sunday. The last one was clear back in 2012. For those of you who are new to reading the blog (or for those of you who have forgotten what the heck a Summary Sunday is because I haven't done one in so long), each Sunday I wrap up what I did for the week. This includes the posts I posted, the recipes I tried, the books I read, the projects I worked on and/or finished, and sometimes some fun stuff I found on the web.

When I was making the blog plans for this year I decided to revive Summary Sundays. I kind of missed them. I think I just like the organization of it all. It just seems nice and tidy, doesn't it? Speaking of organization...the plan for the month still continues. January is Organization and Planning month and I am moving right along.

This year, I'm also going to add in my favorite pin of the week (because I still love Pinterest even though some bloggers have gotten angry about people saying they found something on Pinterest instead of saying specifically what blog they found it on) and maybe a few other surprises here and there...we'll see how it plays out.

So...what did I do last week?

Posts I Posted : On Monday, I made my return to the blog since selecting and announcing the 2014 Book of the Year and having an awesome guest post from my sister-in-law, Victoria. I came up with the 2014 grand plan for the blog and made myself some semi-resolutions. I'm actually kind of excited about this because the plan may help me do what I would like to do with the blog without feeling lost or overwhelmed. Well...I take that back. I'll probably still feel overwhelmed now and then. But I have a road map. And that is awesome.

On Wednesday, I started up the real activity of January's Organization and Planning theme. I put my blog planner together and shared the printables to make your own. I have to say, so far I'm loving the planner and it's making me feel in control. I'm still working on getting it fully up to speed (though I'm getting there), but it's already helped me quite a bit.

And then on Friday, I made the first 2014 BOTY review post. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik was the first book I read this year to earn above 3 stars.

Not too shabby!

Books I Read : Goodreads currently shows me 2 books behind for my 2014 reading goals. I should catch up by one this week because the book I'm reading right now is gooood and moving fast. This week I finished Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik and it was pretty darned good. Good enough to earn itself a blog review and a spot in the bracket for the 2014 Book of the Year.

Projects I Worked On/Finished : I finished designing and assembling the blog planner and have been working to get it all filled in and ready to roll. I'll be sharing this tomorrow, but (in keeping with January's theme) I finished some serious cleaning and reorganization of the scrapbook room and closet. It was a disaster. That's what happens when I tackle Christmas projects. Things get ugly people. I shall share the ugly tomorrow.

Recipes I Tried : I tried two new things this week! I made this Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana (with a few modifications) and put together a citrus salad of my own design (I'll share this sometime, it's easy). We also ate some delicious pumpkin pie pancakes that I'll be sharing in the future (I've made these before) and had ourselves some fantabulous crack bacon.

This Week's Favorite Pin : I wasn't on Pinterest much this week, but I did find myself something that got the wheels a turnin' in my head. I'm totally in organization mode right now, so this idea for organizing fabric from Rhinestone Beagle was right up my alley. The crop room (the room with all of my sewing and random crafting stuff) is a mess and I have fabric everywhere. It's in the works for a total overhaul. Fabric is definitely an issue, so this cute little storage station is something that I'm totally coveting. (The redo is scheduled to be completed by the end of March and will be featured on the blog.)

And there you have it...the first Summary Sunday post of 2014. I even finished it on a Sunday! Things are looking up. According to the planner, I'll be back plenty this week. You're stuck hearing from me tomorrow for the reveal of the scrapbook room clean up. I'll also have a couple of other posts before Friday's month-in-review, a new feature to the blog for 2014.

How did your week go?

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

It's the first post for the contenders in the running for the 2014 Book of the Year!

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik is actually my 2nd book read this year, but the first book (We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates) only got 2 out of 5 stars, so it didn't make the cut. This year, only books ranking at least 3 stars will be eligible for the bracket and only books ranking at least 4 stars will be reviewed on the blog.

So let's talk about this book!

Source

This book has been a long time coming. It was actually recommended to me by Patti over two years ago. I then bought it at a thrift store last year for 65 cents...and placed it on my nightstand...and let it collect dust. I don't know why I did that. I really did want to read it. I was interested in it from the beginning. Yet for some reason I tucked it into a drawer and let it sit there for almost a year. Ridiculous.

But maybe it was just patiently waiting...waiting for me to need a good book. As with last year and the year before, and the year before that, my first read of the year was a dud. (Okay, technically it was my third book last year, but it was read before the 10th of January, so I'm counting it.) I hate that!

Anyway...the point is that I really needed a good book. I was honestly starting to worry that I was never going to finish that first book and no way was I going to be able to get to my book goal for the year at that rate. THIS was a good book. Thank goodness.

Within the first two pages, I was in love with this book. The characters right of the bat reminded me of characters in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. When the book introduced Kari, I pictured Ellen Burstyn. With Slip, it was Fionnula Flanagan. Though the character similarities didn't continue throughout the book, the joy that I found in reading it did.

I found every emotion in this book. I was happy, I was sad, and boy howdy (yes, I said it) I was pissed at Merit's husband. I hated him so much. I wanted to strangle him. Just a serious ass. I still hate him. Should I continue on?

I was happy most of the time, but there was also a lot of sadness in this book. My heart was heaviest for Kari in the beginning. She was substantially older than the other girls, she was widowed, and she had been unable to have the children she wanted. All I kept thinking was, "why does she have to have all this heartache? It's not fair." But I didn't just feel for Kari. I felt for a lot of others in this book, too.

There were so many well developed characters in this book. They became almost real to me. My only issue? I could NOT keep all those darned children straight. I still have a hard time knowing Slip's sons from Audrey's.

Last night, I stayed up reading late into the night just to finish. That's my hallmark for a good book. I sacrificed sleep for this people! And I had to be up early, too! It was worth it. It was a good book.

When I finished, I was torn. Initially I was upset with the ending. I felt like I had been cheated, like it shouldn't be ending yet. But after I calmed down, I realized that I was only upset because I wanted more. I didn't want these wonderful characters to go away. I wanted to live next door to them. In reality, the story ended just when it should have. It was settled. I just wasn't ready to say good-bye yet. That is the sign for a great book. It was a great book.

And so...as is only fair for a great book...Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik gets...

 5 out of 5 stars. 

Read it.

Blog Planner (with Free Printables)

Organization makes me happy. I love having everything all tidied up and pretty. So I knew that if I wanted to make my blog plans for 2014 happen, the first thing I'd have to do is get myself organized.

I started using the Blog Planner a little bit last year, but it didn't quite work the way I wanted it to. I hopped back into Publisher and busted out a new Month-at-a-Glance Sheet and redesigned the way the binder will be used. Let me take you for a tour. Along the way, I'll give you a few freebie files so you can make your own blog planning binder.

The first page in the binder is my To Do List. (We'll come back to the stuff in the pocket later.) I'm using my To Do List to keep track of my progress on blog projects that have been planned, but not scheduled to a specific day. That way I make sure I don't forget about them. Right now, I have designing a new cleaning schedule for our family and reorganizing my meal planning process among the items on that list.

After the to do list is a spiral notebook. I love me a spiral notebook. To be honest, I just love office supplies. Binders, folders, spirals, pens, paper...oh my. My two favorite stores in the world (other than scrapbook supply and fabric stores)? Staples and The Container Store. 

I know I'll end up using this spiral for quite a few plans, but right now it's my planning organizer for the items I want to get done in the house, sorted by room. These are projects that I want to complete and use for blog items. For instance, my list for the scrapbook room includes purging supplies, reorganizing my paper scraps, and sorting my memorabilia. This way I make sure to attack each specific item and document them while I get things completed.

After the spiral comes my favorite part of the binder, my new Month-at-a-Glance Planner.

Month-at-a-Glance Planner

The Month-at-a-Glance has the names of all the planned posts so that I don't forget anything I have specifically in mind for a particular month. It will also help me remember what day I'm planning on having a particular post published. This way I can start getting ahead on blog posts instead of feeling like I have to sit down and write them the day I am planning on putting them up. Much better, because right now I still have a small handful of drafts that have been forgotten along the way.

When I finish a post, I can mark it as scheduled in the bottom check box for that day. On the day of publishing, the planner reminds me to post to all of my social media sites in order to get the most traffic directed to each post as possible.

The Blog Post Planner is the meat of the Blog Planner. Without it, the rest wouldn't work nearly as well.

Blog Post Planner

The Blog Post Planner is a more detailed and individualized version of the Month-at-a-Glance. This is where I can make notes to myself about what I want to specifically include in each post, as well as where I got each idea (in case I used a project I pinned to Pinterest as inspiration).

I used this part of the binder last year, but without the Month-at-a-Glance to keep things organized by the month, all of my posts were jumbled and it made it difficult to find each one easily. Now they're kept in order by date that they will be published. I'll show you how I'm adding in unplanned posts a little later...

A lot of posts have a project and those projects take individual planning. The next item in the binder - the Project Planner - keeps me on track.

Project Planner

I can use the Project Planner to keep track of all the supplies I need to buy and what pictures I should be taking as I make each item. I've had a tendency to get finished with a craft project just to realize that the only picture I have is the end. That makes creating a blog tutorial a LOT more difficult. This way, I can track the fabrication of each project by individualized steps and check them off as I go. Again, I have a spot to note the source of my inspiration. I think it's very important to note your sources. Original creativity is great, but a lot of times the best products come from ideas that grew out of projects made by others. It's only fair to give them a little credit along the way.

Remember that stuff in the front pocket of the binder? Along with scrap paper I add when I write down project ideas without the binder handy, I have a series of pre-printed labels stored up front. These are for my unscheduled posts. Most of the time, these unscheduled posts fall into some particular categories, so I've made up labels to be ready to go for them.

BOTY Labels

I never know when I'll finish a good book that warrants a review. This way, I just write the book and the author down on the label along with the date the post is planned and then stick it into the Blog Post Planner portion of the binder in between the posts that proceed and follow. It helps me remember to schedule the publishing as well as track my social media.

Same goes for posts about food...

Recipe Labels

And scrapbooking posts...

Project Life Labels

Speaking of scrapbooking posts, I use a planner for my Project Life as well. It's stored in the same binder and helps me track what we did on specific days and aids me in pre-planning my layouts.

Want to see more of this and get a free printable to use yourself? Head on over to my post about my Project Life Planner and get yourself a little more organized.

And there you have it! All nice and tidy and ready to roll. I have my Month-at-a-Glance planners all filled out and ready to tackle the monthly themes for 2014. Now it's time to dive in and start planning those individual posts. It should be a good year.

All of the planners I've shown you on this page (with the exception of the Project Life Planner - which is featured on another post) can be printed for free by clicking the links by each corresponding picture. Enjoy!

The planning and organizing for January continues in a few days. I'll be working over the next couple of weeks to reorganize my craft supplies after the mess that came from December's crafting. I'll be sharing my progress with you soon. Happy planning!

It's Time for a Plan...

I've had a couple of down days from crafting and it's been kind of nice to just regroup. But...it's time to get back to work and get this blog back on track. In order to help me do that, I've decided that I need to get a little more organized and come up with a 2014 plan for EPJ.  New year, new EPJ!

First up...it's time for a new logo!

I needed something simpler and brighter. It seems to have more pep.

And now for other changes.

Last year, I didn't post nearly as much as I really wanted to. I let all the other little things that happen in day to day life get overwhelming and then spent a lot of time spinning in circles. My biggest obstacle to getting things up on the blog was often my photos. Typically one of two things happened with craft photos. A lot of the time I had photos of projects taken, but I had so many different things on the camera waiting to be uploaded to the computer and edited that I never got any of them ready to go. Other times, I'd get so caught up in the projects themselves that I forgot to take pictures along the way. When it came to recipes, I'd often be cooking after the sun went down, resulting in no natural light and photos that looked less appealing than I wanted them to. So...new plan.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be editing all of the project photos I have stored and will start placing them into the blog as drafts. This will get them off of the camera and out of editing as well as help me figure out which projects need new photos and which crafts were made without photo documentation. For my food posts, I'll be focusing on making recipes for the blog on weekend days. This way I can start earlier in the day and take advantage of the light when it's available.

In 2014, I'll be pushing myself to get back into crafting...especially scrapbooking, which has fallen by the wayside over the last year. I'll be playing catch up so my scrapbook pages won't always be super current, but the memories will be getting put together - which is what counts.

I'm going to start out by aiming for 3 posts per week, including one Summary Sunday post each week (I've missed those). During the week, I'll be mixing it up a little. So what should you expect?

Books :  2014 Book of the Year is already underway! I have set a goal of 64 books for the year. I'll be posting reviews of books rating 4 or 5 stars and will occasionally give updates on where I am in the BOTY process. Darian will also be sharing occasional posts with reviews of his 4 and 5 star rated books. I'll be taking part in a couple of read-a-thons to keep myself working towards my BOTY reading goal.

Crafts : I have a bunch of projects to share from the past couple of years and I have some others in the planning stages that I'll be working on as the months go by. My Pinterest boards are bursting with things I want to try. I'll be sharing at least two finished crafts each month. I'll also be working on getting finished projects together to finally post things up on my Etsy shop. I've been stalling long enough. It's time to get some finished product out there.

Food : After a short hiatus, I'm getting back on the meal planning wagon. I'm going to be redesigning my meal planning process as well as sharing some great recipes, including both new and old favorites. I'm going to be working on our family cookbook throughout the year and hope to have some progress to show as the year continues.

Scrapbooking : I've kind of let scrapbooking fall by the wayside over the last year and I've decided that it's time for a revival of sorts. I'll be reorganizing my scrapbook room and then getting back to it, so I should have some finished pages to show for it. I'll be sharing both traditional scrapbook pages and completed pages for Project Life.


I've enjoyed doing some theme posting in the past, so I've decided to implement a focus for each month. Alongside the topics listed above, I'll be focusing on one item during each month and will have at least one post each week spotlighting that particular theme. Here's what's coming up...


January : Well...the month's not over yet! January has been a lot about regrouping for me and it's about new plans and resolutions for a lot of others, so the remainder of January will be focusing on organization. Among the things in store, I'll be getting my blog planner ready, updating my meal plan, reorganizing the scrapbook room, making plans for my family recipe book, and drawing up the plans for the redecoration of my sewing/craft room. Organizing and planning is bound to run over into February, but I'll get a big jump start before month's end.

February : February is the month of love. My parents will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and Collin and I will be celebrating our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. I'll be sharing some of my favorite memories of my parents and my family, our engagement and wedding photos, our love story - including the story of our wedding day, and some of the DIY crafts I completed for our wedding.

March : March is all things spring. It will be time for spring break and spring cleaning. I'll be undertaking the sewing/craft room reorganization and tackle some other house projects to share. I'll also be doing some spring themed crafts to help balance out our holiday decor stash and keep it all from being just Halloween and Christmas.

April : April is the A-to-Z Challenge. It's "26 posts on 26 days of April, with Sundays off for good behavior". I'll still be posting Summary Sundays during the month, but the rest of the days will be posts themed by sequential letters of the alphabet. It could get a little crazy.

May : May is the first of two book months. Bout-of-Books 10 Read-a-Thon runs from May 12th to May 18th. I'll be doing some serious reading, posting some book reviews, undertaking reading challenges, and seeing if I can keep up with my 2014 BOTY goals. I'll do my best to get Darian involved since he seemed to have a good time with it last year.

June : June is my Pinterest challenge month. I'll be picking projects from my Pinterest boards and actually accomplishing them! Recipes made for the blog and books read for reviews will come from things I've pinned.

July : In July, it's time for vacation! We'll be talking all things travel. I'll be sharing some favorite family vacation memories and showing you how I organize my vacation memorabilia, as well as posting some complete vacation scrapbooking from over the years.

August : August is reading month number 2! The month will be filled with book reviews and updates on my 2014 BOTY goals. Bout-of-Books 11 Read-a-Thon runs from August 18th to August 24th. It's back to reading for a solid week with daily updates and challenges.

September : September is all about scrapbooking. It's time to hit the books...scrapbooks, that is. I'll be sharing how I organize my supplies and photos, what products I like best, where I like to shop for my scrap stash, and of course showing off some scrapbook pages (including Project Life). I'll be working a lot on mini-albums during the year and hope to have a couple to share.

October : If you've been around the blog long enough, you know that October is our favorite month of the year around here. I'll be posting our Halloween Pumpkin Project plans, sharing pumpkin carving progress and debuting the final results on Halloween night.

November : It's time for NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month. I'll be working on writing something every day and showcasing a few tidbits here and there on the blog. I'll also be starting the 2014 Christmas Present Project Countdown and checking off those presents as I finish.

December : I'll be crafting up a storm in preparation for Christmas, but there will still be blogging! It will be time for some year end wrap up posts, including how things went for my goals this year and how the bracket is looking for the 2014 Book of the Year. I'll be sharing some ideas for the following year as well as keeping up with the Christmas Present Project Countdown.


Well...that should be enough to keep me busy! I may be adding a few challenges to the schedule here and there to keep things interesting, but it's good to have some goals set out. I'm looking to a fun and productive 2014 here at Erratic Project Junkie. I hope you'll join me!

Guest Post: Lost and Found Puzzles

** Today's post is a guest post from my awesome sister-in-law Victoria. She runs an Etsy shop over at Lost and Found Puzzles. We were lucky enough to have her make us a puzzle for the guest book at our wedding. She makes some really amazing puzzles so I've asked her to hang out here for the day to show them off.

Victoria (my brother in the background). How cute is she? Photo by Ampersand Studios

(Be sure to go check out her website and her Facebook page after you read how she makes these cool projects.) Thanks Vic! Take it away...**

My fabulous sister-in-law offered me a guest spot on her blog…so exciting!!! I hope that I can keep you as entertained/engaged as she does (I know I have my work cut out for me).  Here we go…

I've always loved puzzles, but it wasn't until 2011 that I started viewing them as a story of life. My best friend Holley's Dad, Mark Clapp, passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. At his celebration of life, a speech was given regarding puzzles and it got me thinking. Below is a post that I wrote on Mark's Caring Bridge page.

"I've thought a lot today about what to write. I thought back to the memorial service and that speech that was given regarding puzzles.  It made me think of all of the people in my life who make up my puzzle. When putting a puzzle together you think of your key pieces...I always find my corners first. Holley came into my life as one of my corners very early on. I have you to thank for creating one of my edges. You were a constant in my youth and will be thought of everyday in my future. Not only did you provide me with my multiple pieces of my puzzle growing up, but in your passing you brought me another corner. I will thank you every day for bringing Tyler into my life. You really do have a way of always being there and pulling the puzzle together. I know it's not complete yet, but I am a better person knowing that you helped by filling so many of the pieces. I love you."

When Tyler proposed and the wedding planning began, I knew that I wanted a puzzle as the guest book. I wanted to see the names/notes of all of the people in our lives and how they come together to make our puzzle.

So…how do I make them?  Well, last summer Tyler and I headed to the German Village garage sale. Amongst our amazing finds were a pair of Danish Modern side tables, an unbelievable vintage desk, a filing cabinet that is screaming for a makeover and we really lucked out when Tyler spotted a scroll saw that has got to be at least 50 years old!  I decided to give it the ol’ scholarly try and see if I could actually pull a DIY and make our own wedding puzzle guest book.  We took a trip to Lowes to buy a piece of birch plywood. This store was quickly becoming a second home as we were in the midst of remodeling our newly purchased house.  …I know, I know, a wedding and house purchase/remodel at the same time… What was I thinking?!?!  I’m still not so sure.  Anyway, I sketched out the puzzle on an 18”x24” sheet so that it would amount to 120 pieces with each piece large enough for guests to sign.  We tried to include more organic shapes than typical puzzle pieces…anyone that knows us, knows that we are anything but typical! J Then it came time to cut…YIKES!  I was terrified that I was going to ruin our guestbook.  I made some test cuts on some scrap wood first, then held my breath and started on the real thing.  To my pleasant surprise, it came rather natural and I felt pretty good relatively quickly at making the quirky little cuts we’d outlined.

This is the scroll saw we found at the garage sale with some of my first cuts.

 I tried to keep the puzzle assembled and numbered as I made cuts.

_{Assembled and ready for the wedding (please ignore the countertops…I did tell you we were in the middle of a remodel, right???)}

After cutting, I sand each piece to remove any rough edges.  This takes a lot of time and patience… A LOT!  I found that you also need to be a fan of sawdust because it gets everywhere!  I decided to paint and number the back of the puzzle so that it was easier to distinguish the front from back (some guests still signed on the wrong side, but I just transferred their message to the front).

The puzzle turned out better than I had hoped and I love reading through all of the pieces/messages from our friends and family!  I’m torn between framing it and hanging it in our home or possibly creating the tradition of putting it together on every anniversary.

Puzzle on display at wedding.

Signed puzzle pieces collected in a box we set up.

The almighty completed puzzle.

After our wedding, my lovely, talented and beautiful sister-in-law, Lynde, was preparing herself for wedded bliss!  I offered to make her a puzzle guest book and to my delight…she took me up on it!  Check it out J

(Credit to my amazingly creative husband who came up with the idea of having Idaho as the center piece)

                                                  

Since those two puzzles, I decided to set up an Etsy page to see if I could sell any of my creations (https://www.etsy.com/shop/lostandfoundpuzzles).  The response has been fabulous!  I received my first order right around the time I started taking classes at the Idea Foundry here in Columbus.  I’ve taken woodshop and laser cutting classes which have been great in contributing to the creativity in these puzzles!  I run to the Foundry whenever I need to cut down an oversized piece of wood (their table saw has a larger bed than the one we have at home) or when I want to play with their laser etching/cutting machine.  I’ve had eight sales so far and received some really amazing feedback!  It’s so great to hear the stories of others and what each puzzle means to them.  I’ve made plain puzzles as Christmas gifts for puzzle fanatics, keepsake puzzles for families that have experienced recent losses, name art puzzles for the little ones in your life, wedding guestbooks and much, much more.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this!  If you’re interested in having a custom puzzle made, let me know J 

Puzzle made as a gift for our wedding photographers(Ampersand Studios). 

Left to right: prior to staining, stained and pop of color on edges, finished with etched in “studios” to complete their company name.

Wedding guest book - The groom provided the artwork and I etched it onto the puzzle!  Like his artwork?  Find more of it at: http://about.me/joshua.lee.maynard

Name art for the little ones (Christmas presents for my nieces and nephew)