Wednesday, May 28, 2014

WOYWW #260 - Happy 5th Anniversary!

Wow! 5 years of visiting work spaces all over the world. Amazing! Though I've not been here the full 5 years, I've never felt like a stranger. That's the 'neighborly' feeling our hostess, Julia Dunnit hopes we all experience as we go from 'house to house'. Everyone is welcome. To find out more, pop over to the WOYWW page on Stamping Ground for all the details and come play with us!

So my desk this week...

This is my office desk between the laundry room and kitchen. I spend my weekdays here working on music stuff while I multi-task throughout the house.

My morning would not be complete without my Spirit kitty. He turned 7 on Good Friday. He is a 5th generation panther so I thought this an appropriate time to share him with y'all. 

For those of you who've been seeing the Documented Life Planner posts. The latest one with the inside organization pages is HERE.  I am now ready to start working backwards with the weekly art challenges. Looking forward to the creative process again. 

I am participating in the 5th Anniversary ATC swap so look for the * next to my name and email me 
KellyH (at) artlover (dot) com

Creative Blessings!
Kelly 

Monday, May 26, 2014

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Documented Life Planner....

.... Ready for business!!



As you can see, I've still not done much with the cover. I'm not sure I'm going to. This will not only be on my desk but be in my bag and taken with me every where I go. The one thing I thought I might do is to add some cut-outs and stamped images then do a clear seal. That would protect the items while still letting me have a bit of fun. I'll keep you posted. 

The headband is working out well. I cut the headband in one spot and used 2 snap eyelets on the back to hold them to the book. I'm sure this will be a trial/ error thing as I continue to use the journal to see how they hold up.

Keep in mind, The Documented Life Planner is normally done in a Weekly Moleskin journal. I don't work by the week. I work by the day. Trying to compile an entire year by the day in one journal would be impossible. So I have broken my DL Planner into quarters. I have one composition book for each 3-month quarter of the year.  

Let's peek inside....


Any trips I plan or things I want to do with Bob are planned around his schedule. As a riverboat Captain, he works 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off. So I've used the 2-page Month - At - A - Glance section of one of the Monthly calendars as a tip-out in the front of each quarterly journal so I can see when he's home and when he's out for his 21 days without having to go to that month. This will be particularly handy when I'm in this quarter's planner and need to know when he's home say in the last quarter of the year. I've attached this with Washi Tape so I can move it from one planner to the next.

At the beginning of each month I've added one of these plastic pockets. They come in a 5-pk at the office supply for around $4. They are made to fit the standard 5.5 x 8.5 dayplanners. This will be a great place for me to keep track of receipts when I travel as deductions are important come tax time.

 For the months of April and May, I had been using a full-size spiral notebook to track my daily activities while these books were in the gesso stage. When the books were done, I cut those pages down to size and adhered them into the DL planner. Thus the line frame you see here. But the important part of my planner is the Time Block sheets I've attached to each page as a fold out with Washi Tape.



Here's a close up:

Similar to the dayplanner pages marked out in 1/2 hour increments, I have blocked out my day. This helps me keep track of how much time I am spending on any one task. Since implementing this I'm no longer working 12-15 hour days trying to get everything done.  Unless I want to work on my novel - which I try to do for a couple hours each night after supper, the computer is shut down by 6 p.m. every day.

When you fold out the time block sheet, this is where I keep track of what I've done, who I've called or emailed. For my Texas trip, I used this space more as a journal of my trip.


Lastly, I have multiple blogs and tasks that are Must Do each day - though they may differ from day to day. So I've created these colorful bookmarks. If you click on the picture you'll see a detail of my blogs and my topics for each day. Again, just a visual to help keep me on track.


The Documented Life Planner is also about art and one of the reasons I latched onto this concept. With the gessoed pages each day I can safely play with markers/ water colors, etc. I also have a place to attach pockets to hold memorabilia or anything else. 

Now that the journals are put together, I'm going to travel backwards, incorporating the Art to the 5th Challenges. 

Creative Blessings!


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

WOYWW # 259


Progress on my Documented Life Planner. I was able to take the journal with me when I attended the Books In Bloom Festival in Eureka Springs Arkansas last weekend. So far the layout is working well. I'll show the insides to you on Monday.

But as you can see, the dining room table is still my working area. My desk downstairs is still clean but by working up here, I'm able to multi-task. You can see the other two comp books in the back waiting for their calendar inserts.

Everyone has commented on the amount of washi tape I have. I went all in LOL. I went from thinking I would never use it to 'ooo I gotta have that one!'.  But as I've stated, they were purchased primarily for the Documented Life Planner project. Washi tape is used as the hinges as well as the page accents. Do I have enough? Probably... but there are a couple patterns in the SU mini that expires the end of this month.

If you want to know why I'm showing you mine and would like to see what others in the community are up to, visit. Stamping Ground for a complete list of folks to pop in on.

I didn't get around to any desks last week. I was swamped with work and prepping for yet another road trip. I'm home this week and will be around to visit.
Creative Blessings!
Kelly



Wednesday, May 14, 2014

WOYWW #258 - Documented Life Progress


I've not been playing with anything the past few weeks. There was the prep for the Texas trip, the trip itself, which got extended then the catch-up once I got back a couple weeks ago. But I am determined to get this put together so I can use it this weekend.

By the end of today I should be able to put the eyelets in place and run the elastic band. I'm going to try using elastic headbands.

Books in Bloom author festival in Eureka Springs Arkansas on Sunday and this will be the perfect place to tuck author's bookmarks and business cards.

If you don't know why I'm showing you this, hop on over to Stamping Ground where Ms Julia opens up her tour for us to peek in at creative blogs all around the world.