LOAD216-Day 2: The back-up project

Every LOAD I make sure I have one easy project I can work on when I am pinched for time. It is usually a project that is half done so doing the odd page here and there over the month means I may actually finish that big project and feeling twice as good about having done LOAD.

This year's back-up project is the album for our trip to the US in the autumn of 2013. It was a great 2 week trip I took with my then 4 year old son Thomas. We stayed with one of my best friends and had THE BEST TIME EVER. So we took a gazillion pictures and printed at least 100 that have to go in this album I got at HEMA back in 2013. I had decorated the front before we left:

I am about half way through the trip and tonight I did some fille pages of our weekend in a cabin in Shenandoah National Park. It is so beautiful there. I have blurred out my friends and family for privacy reasons but little MR. T is still in full focus.

I'm off to bed now!

LOAD 4, 8-13 Catching up on the blogging

We have had a lovely holiday in England and I feel truly relaxed. So now that we have been back, unpacked and Thomas is in school again I have some time to upload the missing layouts....YES, I did keep making a layout each day last week. And I am still going strong: 14 out of 14 so far;-) But Mobile Internet abroad turned out to be a bit of a pain so I limited myself to uploading my layout to the LOAD gallery and not blogging.  But here's what you've missed out on;-)

Day 4, this got stuck in cyberspace somewhere. I had made blog post on my mobile and tried uploading while on the ferry but we had left the port before it went and it was then (insert french accent here) 'untouchable'. I have not been able to re-publish it or even delete it from my phone...very annoying!  Anyway, I made the page, it's another one in the USA album. Used some real washi tape to match the faux washi on the SN@P journalling card. As this is a traditional paper photo album I keep the layouts simple with as few layers as possible or the whole thing will just become too thick:-)

LOAD Day 8: Finally onto the next day in our USA album! This day we went to Ashland, VA to check out the trains. American trains are much bigger, longer and way shinier than their Dutch counterparts. Thomas loved it but was somewhat disappoint he couldn't get onto it. Luckily there was the model train shop to cheer him up again.

LOAD Day 9: Still in Ashland, we also went to a curious supermarket called Cross Brothers. Where they have not really tidied or thrown anything away for the last 100 years it seems: old tills, bills, 70's freezers and scrap books in between the long life milk....

LOAD Day 10: We rounded our trip to Ashland off with a bit of play. My friend's mom, Millie has secured Thomas everlasting love for going down the slides with him.

LOAD Day 11: As we were now back from England I could follow the prompts again. Today's was 'Puppy Love. I used a picture of Thomas laying with a lovely dog that somebody walks near our home, I think it's a Cocker Spaniel and I like it. Now this is a BIG THING, I have always been afraid of dogs and even now that I have become more comfortable around them I could never have imagined liking a dog and thinking 'I could have a dog like that...' I don't see it happening any time soon but for that thought to even pop into my head...milestone! And for Thomas to be so comfortable around dogs is a relief to me, I have really tried NOT to pass on my fear of dogs and I seem to have succeeded..GO ME!

LOAD DAY 12: Seeds for the future. I love this layout. I have combined black and white pictures of me when I was a baby, scurrying around at my grandfather's nursery and colour pictures of Thomas at our allotment and bacony. I am (unsuccesfully) trying to instill in him the same love for plants that my mom and grandfather before me had....but all he wants to do is explore and make a big muddy mess:-)

LOAD Day 13: Today's prompt was Best of the Best. I didn't feel it and couldn't think of anything. So I did another page in the USA album. I started this at 11 PM and had a hard time putting it together, it had been a long day with me teaching a stamp carving class in the evening. So not too great but another page done!

Loads of pages: 5, 6 and 7

Well, crafting on the go is one thing but uploading pictures to Flickr and Blogger when you're abroad is quite another when you have your not-so-unlimited unlimited mobile Internet plan with T-mobile....I ran out of my limit on day 3 of my one week package!

Luckily there is my pretty tech savvy husband who has set his mobile up so I can use his wi-fi. Love is a beautiful thing:-)

So here are day 5, 6 and 7 of LOAD. Three more pages in the USA album. I'm still only at the 4th day of our trip! But it was such a great trip and so many good memories that I can't get myself to leave out any pictures. And being away while doing my layout a day challenge it makes.iy easy to do a page a day with the added bonus on making great progress on the album.

I am not checking what the real daily prompts are so I don't get side tracked. And it's working: I am finishing my pages and still have plenty of time to enjoy my holiday with my son and husband.

Could you use a bit of focus in your life? What could you cut out or ignore to be more efficient with your time? What might you achieve in a week? Let me know, I'd love to hear.