#operationreadmore | March & April

March was a busy month for me. I started my accounting course at the start of the month, and that led to me only reading 3 books. I got halfway through Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, but knew that I'd never finish it in March so I left it for April.

Anyways, in March I read:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
The Life Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight
(Which was amazing by the way.)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

It was so awesome to re-read the Harry Potter books. Books 1-4 were my favourites as a kid, and everyone I hear talk about them who's read them as an adult says they're better for the kids than the last few books. Books 5-7 get darker, and reading them as an adult I definitely got more from them than I did while reading them when I was younger.

Books I read in April:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
A Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

I loved A Year of Yes and The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck. Both are those books that encourage you to change your life. Even if it's just in small ways like saying yes to certain things, and saying no to other things.

I've been looking at my bookshelf, and it still has a bunch of books on it, but I love the excitement of new books. Eventually I'll get to reading all the books on my to-read shelf, but I love the feeling I get when I add books to it.

Project Life | Week 13

Today I'm sharing Week 13. I've seriously been trying to use my stash, and get some things off my desk, so my spreads lately have had the addition of a few embellishments here and there, and I've stopped hoarding cards from Studio Calico kits from almost 2 years ago.

Left side; I loved that ampersand card so much I didn't want to use it. I almost took it out of this spread, but after I stamped on it, there was no going back. I added some labels I made using Kellie Stamps (this set) and (this set). I used these same labels in my Day in the Life album and they've been sitting on my desk asking to be used.

Right side; kept it rather simple. Added a flair from (this set) by The Crafty Pocket. I just put a couple glue dots on the edge and stick it down. Adding a foam dot to the back makes it too thick for the pocket pages, but would be fine in a chunky mini album.

Thanks for coming by to see this spread. I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Kellie Stamps | April Release

Today I'm sharing a layout that makes my heart happy. I used pieces from a past Story Kit from Ali Edwards (I literally never use it while it's still available and I don't know why). I also used the cross stamp from this digital set of Kellie Stamps.

This layout took me a little while to put together, but once the pieces came together I couldn't stop looking at it.

I put all the pieces in a vertical line and kept everything pretty simple. I think the background paper could have been a little simpler, but I really wanted to use this paper that I made. I love that the red pieces stand out against the black and white.

I backed the hexagon heart this piece on white paper to keep it from blending into the background. I just stuck it on white paper and roughly cut around it. It's not perfect, but I love how it separates the two pieces. I also love the acrylic word. I've been using them on a lot of my projects lately, and I love them so much!

Thank you for coming by to see this spread. It's super simple and just documents my niece trying to write "Auntie Alex". She's only 5 and given her very small knowledge of words she did a really good job. I can't wait to watch her writing develop!

I also used the April release in my Day in the Life album (here).

Project Life | Week 12

I feel like this spread was a little rushed, and is therefore a little unfinished looking, but I'm currently in the middle of a creative slump and so this layout was a tiny bit forced and I think it shows in most aspects. Oh well, here's week 12.

Left side; March was the last month I received a Studio Calico kit, and then I cancelled my subscription to the documenter kit. I liked using the month cards for my title cards during each month and I'm going to miss using them, but I really want to use more of my stash of cards instead.

Am I the only one who feels like those cards that have half a pattern and a small white space need something on the pattern half? Even though it already has a pattern on it. I keep leaving them plain because I try not to keep a TON of embellishments around so I never feel like I have the perfect piece to complete it, or it's something cheesy like "the best day". I did however, use a flair from The Crafty Pocket (available here) on that cute little triangle card that dictated the colours of cards I used for this spread.

Right side; I'm not really happy with this half of the spread, but it's done and that's what counts. Lately I haven't been taking too many photos, (all I do is work, read and craft) and I haven't been making many notes about what's happening during the week. I've been trying to just make short notes in my Get to Work Book (the new version isn't yet available, but here's a link to the shop). My notes are usually "family dinner - Wong" or "drinks - Goodman" and that is usually enough to jog my memory, but sometimes I don't even make those notes and can't remember what happened that week when I go back to write it all out. Which is also fine because it's not about all of the details, it's about the overall story. I can't tell every story about a particular week, but I can give an overview of the highlights.

Thanks for coming by to see this spread. Tomorrow I have a Kellie Stamps post, and links to some projects I made using this month's stamp sets.

Project Life | Week 11

Today I'm sharing week 11. This week I included an insert because we had a slightly busier weekend than usual. I discovered that most people use their weekends to drink and play boardgames and laugh at seriously inappropriate things. It was so much fun.

Left side; I'm seriously trying to use my stash. I used the Craft Story Kit from Ali Edwards (no longer available) and some Studio Calico pieces to complete this spread. I love the stamp from the Craft kit. I've always loved Ali's handwriting, and that "Made with Love" stamp perfectly describes everything I make, ever. 3 layouts and several more pans of Rolo Pretzels Sandwiches (which are delicious, we made them for Christmas).

The front of the insert. The photos aren't in order (the top photo would normally be at the bottom) but I'm totally okay with how they're positioned. The journaling explains the order of events, and that's all that matters.
The bottom right card says "hahahah" over and over. It was originally a 4x6 and the other half of the card had blank space for journaling or a photo. I cut it in half and used the opposite sides (slightly different tones of the same colour) on both sides of this insert. I love that they both just say "haha" over and over again. Perfectly describes this weekend.

Here's the back of the insert. We tried a new game, and we love it. It's called Pirates Cove, and we hadn't tried it because it looked "hard", but it's really super simple. Then there was a round of Channel A (and it was awesome) followed by a short game of Cards Against Humanity (first person with 4 black cards wins and the game ends). It was such a fun couple of days. The bottom center card is the other half of the "haha" card. The colour is a little different but still fits into the spread.

Right side; On Sunday night, we went to my brother's place for family dinner to celebrate Jon's birthday. We had pizza and cake and played a couple rounds of Carcassonne (one of our favourite games). We were supposed to go to the movie after but someone got the times wrong so we just went home and when I opened the door of the truck the game fell out and dumped in the dirt (obviously I snapped a photo before helping clean it up) and then we just played some Mario.

Thank you for coming by to see this spread. I've really enjoyed sharing two Project Life spreads every week (my attempt at catching up a little because I was late to start sharing this year) and I've got some pages from 2011-2013 that I haven't shared, so I've been considering sharing monthly pages from those albums on Fridays. Which would be super helpful to me because I haven't had a ton of time to do anything beyond just my normal Project Life pages, and I like sharing three times every week. I'll keep weighing the pros and cons, and you'll just have to come back next week and see what I share! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!