weekly gratitude: january

before i share all the work i've done this morning i have a very sad announcement...


it seems as though my sewing machine is sick. out of commission. needs repair.

as i've said before. i love this machine. it was my late grandma cisowski's and i've always adored it. in my lifetime i mostly watched as she made outfit after outfit for her cement goose that was kept NOT outdoors as garden decor but central in the living room as a member of the family. when i tell you this was the best dressed goose i'm not exaggerating.... it had an outfit for every month, occasion, holiday, and probably a few more thrown in between. grandma also made me several skirts while i was in high school which i wore to hoosier girls state as i needed "business" attire for our mock government, ahhh... indiana. good times.

anway. this machine is not done for. we are taking it into the city tomorrow to a singer service shop. to be honest i should have done this before starting the quilt. i think the machine just needs a thorough cleaning and a little love. so it will be back, and then i will finish the quilt, sheets, and other sewing projects i have planned. but i'm sad still.

so. weekly gratitude. like i said yesterday i'm really excited about this project. i've been steadily trying to get myself back into the habit of consistently scrapbooking and i feel so behind with pictures from last year that i'm really looking at this project as an opportunity to keep the year in focus and remind myself every week where i've been, what i'm most thankful for in my life, and all the important things that really matter.

i have decided to use this album that i got on sale from anthropologie awhile back...


it holds 4x6 photos three to a page and has like 37 double sided pages so my thought is that i'll use one page per week and use the extra places for more photos, art cards, journaling, or whatever.

i've completed the main spots for january thus far (pretty good for one morning huh!?!) i really love all of the downloads that karen has created for this project. all the links to these will be at the end of this post. when i replenish my printer ink this weekend i'll print them all out on 4x6's and then embellish and make art cards to go around them.

here they are....



oops! i missed the 9th. ok well i'll get to it in a little bit and post it later. i'm pretty proud of myself that i was able to do all of these so quickly! i never have done a lot of digital work but karen's templates are so simple and modern that i'm quickly becoming a big fan.

they aren't 100% done. joe just got new cards from launch so i'm going to scan on and put it in the open spot on that layout. i'm also going to change the border colors on that one so that they match the company's colors (which i can't remember at this moment if they are lime green or orange... bad wifey.)

as promised here are the links to weekly gratitude & the available downloads...

weekly gratitude blog
karen's weekly gratitude templates
karen's gratitude overlays

i linked up to the post on the blog because she has some additional information about fonts etc.

oh and the "growing" text on my page is courier new. it's a really simple text manipulation where i make the large word, turn it so it's on the side, and bring down the opacity in the layer blending options.

now off to eat lunch and knit a bit. the sun is shining and it's going to be a creative and inspiring day!

love.

**updated: added the week of the 9th in there!