2015 in Review

2015 was a crazy year for me. When the year began, I had just signed a lease for a new apartment 2.5 hours away from my family and was three months into my first year as a library director. Now, as the year comes to a close, I'm living in a different house in a different town over an hour away from the library and contemplating even more career changes. 2015 was a whirlwind, and at the same time it seemed like the longest year ever.

I was noticeably absent from this blog for most of the year. I thought about you all often, and longed to be back here sharing with you on more than one occasion. But living life always seemed to get in the way of documenting it. No posts were written, no project life pages were completed, and very few journal entries were made.

As I look forward to 2016 and all the potential changes that year will bring, I know that I will need a place to come to, to share the ups and downs, the successes and the failures, to help make sense of it all somehow. I can't wait to share that journey with all of you here. There is no better support system I know of than a community of creative-minded individuals like those I have found through blogging. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

But before the year is over, I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments from 2015 as a way of filling all of you in on what you missed.

January

January's cold days were best spent cuddling on the couch with the dogs whenever possible. The rest of the time I had to make do with comfort foods, like this gluten-free pot pie (my first attempt!). 

February

February brought a visit from my mom, sister, and little niece, Brilli. It was wonderful to get to spend some time with them, just us girls.

March

By March I was finding it pretty hard to be away from J and the dogs so much. Living apart has been very difficult for me. So I soaked up the puppy cuddles when I could...and Foster is always happy to comply.

April

April brought the chance to spend time with old friends and enjoy some great music together. Better weather meant more time outdoors with the pups. 

May

May was a slow month at the library as we did some last minute prep for Summer Reading. This gave me time to attend a conference in New Harmony, Indiana, and take in the beauty of that place. We also managed a quick getaway to Lake Michigan for a weekend. I can never get enough of that place!

June

June was full of library work and the Summer Reading Program. But I did manage to take time to visit my family in Kentucky and see my niece again. She had grown so much!

July

July brought more changes. One of my best friends got married (and had a fabulously fun bachelorette party). And Jesse started a new job...but not before taking a few weeks to travel with the dogs.

August

The summer craziness was finally over at the library, and I managed to take a whole week off to travel to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with J, the dogs, and some good friends. There's nothing like sunset beach campfires to calm the soul. 

September

September brought a move (and the beginning of a never-ending DIY saga) for me, and a new member of our little family.

October 

J had to travel to Denver for work over Halloween, and we decided I should join him for a mini vacation. We spent the first day downtown, then traveled to Breckenridge, Vale, and Avon the next day. Our final day was spent in Boulder, before heading back to the airport for our flight home. We saw some beautiful sights, ate some fabulous food (those are duck fat fries in the picture below), and even managed to take in some good music. Overall it was a very successful trip!

November

Most of November was spent in the throws of the aforementioned DIY saga (plenty more on that to come), but thanks to another conference I was able to join J and the dogs in Noblesville for a few days where we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and plenty of time playing in the fallen leaves (it's Abi's favorite).

December

 
 December was spent with family, mine in Kentucky and J's here in Indiana. We had a wonderful Christmas together in Noblesville, and even managed to make it to the Star Wars premiere. :)

And that's 2015 in a long, very picture-heavy nutshell. We had some great times, but I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. 

Until next year!

Throwback Thursday - Project Life 2013 Week 8

In order to keep myself motivated to both catch up with this year's Project Life album and finish (and post) last year's album, I've decided to post two spreads per week. I've kind of been doing this already, sporadically, but now I'm giving it some structure. Tuesdays will be the day I post my most recent 2014 spread, and Thursdays (hereafter known as Throwback Thursdays) will be the day I post a spread from my 2013 album...or possibly even an earlier album. So, without further ado...

This week's Throwback Thursday Project Life spread is from just over one year ago: Week 8 of 2013. And it's a big one.

The first part of the week, was fairly normal. Monday was my first rehearsal for Little Shop of Horrors (I played Audrey in our local community theater's production). Wednesday we finalized the refinance of our house (making our monthly payment significantly lower - woohoo!). 

Then, Wednesday afternoon we flew to Florida for our annual trip to visit J's grandparents. They are snowbirds who winter in a little town just southeast of Orlando. It's always a great time, and it's a pretty inexpensive vacation for us, since we stay with them for most of the trip.

I actually didn't have a single picture from the part of the week we spent at home, so I used several filler cards and plenty of journaling to fill up the first page of the spread. The lack of pictures on this side was balanced by using a single, 12x12 picture for the other side of the spread. This picture also serves as a sort of introduction to the Florida portion of the week.

Between the two, I added a basic 8.5x11 insert with the Little Shop rehearsal schedule. I wanted to save this bit of ephemera to remind myself how time-consuming the production was, and how it basically dominated my life for the next two months...but it was totally worth it!

The color schemes for the two portions of the week are strikingly different, which seemed fitting for the strikingly different climates. For this first part, I used a lot of pastel and neutral colors.

But for the time spent in Florida I used more vibrant and bright colors. For some reason, Florida just screams neon to me. :)

Our first day there was fairly short, after the flight, getting our rental car, and driving to his grandparents' neighborhood. But we did get to go to Sonny's for supper, which is always a highlight for me! They have amazing BBQ and an impressive gluten-free menu. And I was absolutely starving after finding a serious lack of gluten-free options for our airport lunch.

Day two started with a trip to the local barber shop. J was desperate to shed his beard in the warm weather! Then we hit up a few favorite local markets (of course our favorites are the ones with free beer) and stocked up on food for the week. We also stopped at a few shops and picked up a few fun bits, including J's hat (I'm not sure he took it off the rest of the trip) and a Starbucks cold mug for me. :)

For lunch we stopped at a local authentic Mexican restaurant (almost always an easy gluten-free option), where I proceeded to drink a margarita as big as my head...which led to me hula-hooping in the middle of Walmart - where we went to buy J's grandparents their (belated) Christmas gift: a Weber portable propane grill.

Then it was back to their place to grill up some seriously awesome steaks (and pork chops for me). Oh, and just ignore the "cooked to perfection" caption on the meat picture...clearly it's not & I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I wrote it. But I'm leaving it, since it's now a kind of joke in our house. :)

One of my favorite moments captured on this spread was the quote I wrote down from Thursday night, and added to the bottom right pocket above. One of J's favorite parts of our Florida trips is trying out all of the beers we can't get here, and on our second night there he may have been a bit overly exuberant with his sampling. ;)

On day 3 we finally made it to the beach! J's grandpa went with us for a morning walk, and I snapped plenty of pics. Gotta love beach photos!

After our walk we stopped at a bikini bar for a drink. The boys were a little disappointed not to see a single bikini. Then we headed to a local brewery for a tasting. We also bought some beers for what we call "the treasure chest." Since J's grandparents drive their camper down to Florida every fall, they kindly offer to bring back anything we buy down there with them when they return to Indiana in the spring. So we fill a box with beers, ciders, and wines we can't get locally...our treasure chest. It's a fun little present to ourselves come April.

After having lunch back at the camper, we headed north to Cocoa Beach. The brewery there is a favorite of J's. Then we decided it was time for us to do the touristy thing and got to Ron Jon and the Cocoa Beach pier.  Unfortunately, both were a pretty big let-down, but we had a couple drinks and walked the beach a bit and managed to have plenty of fun, despite our surroundings.

On day 4 we went on a new adventure and took A1A south to Vero Beach. 

This day was definitely the highlight of our trip. We started at BrewGrrs after Googling bars with a large selection of beers on tap. Then we headed to Mulligan's, which we found Googling for a place where we could eat on the beach.

It was an awesome experience! I had one of the best bloody marys of my life and an amazing shrimp cocktail, all while listening to some great live music. See that tiny little drummer? He was adorable, and also incredibly talented!

After spending some time on the beach, we headed back north to have dinner at The Mansion, which was delicious and may have involved some wine (do you see a trend here?)

Day 5 meant leaving Florida and heading back to freezing Indiana. We said goodbye to the freaking awesome rental car (a Volvo convertible that looked like a transformer when you opened the roof), and boarded our flight home. Sadly, when we got back to our car in the frigid airport garage, the battery was dead. We spent forever trying to get it fixed but ended up just calling a friend to pick us up and take us home, then went back the next day to take care of it. It was a really bad ending to a really great trip.

Most of the products I used are from older collections and are no longer available, but I want to point out a few that you can still get.

For the first page:

Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic 6x6 paper pad

Kinship Genealogy Spring Kit

Kinship Genealogy January Kit

Evalicious Globe Trotter Stamp Set

Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Woodgrain Muse Chipboard Thickers

Studio Calico Sundrifter Ombre Aqua Thickers

Pebbles Walnut Grove Kraft Prairie Tile Thickers

For the remainder of the spread:

Kinship Genealogy Neon Embellishment Kit

Amy Tangerine Hello Ash Fabric Thickers

Studio Calico Atlantic Arrows/Chevrons Cork Stickers

If you have any questions about the rest of the products use here, feel free to ask in the comments, and I'll do my best to provide sources for them.