Project Life Plans for 2016

    It's been almost one year that I've been doing project life. I've notices some other bloggers announcing their plans for the new year, so I thought I's join the crowd.
    One of the big changes is that I probably shouldn't be calling it Project Life because I'm switching to Studio Calico, but the abbreviation PL is so convenient, I think it will be a hard switch.
    Now, onto the questions:
    How will the spreads be organized by time? I think I'm going to try to to every two weeks but stick with my "go with the flow" attitude with in the period. I'm doing this because I think I'll get better at Project Life pocket scrapbooking if I do it more frequently (?).
    Buying any new card kits? So I found out on ebay people sell partial card kits. I still have cards left over from my last kit (kiwi), but I'm in love with the cottage kit:

So I'll just buy it for next year. I also want to make some of my own cards, but I'll talk more about that later.

    What size are you going to do? Last year I did 12x12 and this year I'm doing 9x12. My 12x12 album is so small (as in number of pages) but so big (as in it won't fit on a normal shelf!). I'm glad SC made a 9x12 size so I don't have to do 8x8. I think that's too small, 9x12 is a good in between.

    What layout style are you going to use?

  SC sells a multi-pack of all their designs so I see no reason not to use it.

    How will you print? I'm going to experiment with snapfish (possibly for this December) because they have the cheapest prints, but I know I have to use persniketyprints to print 3x3 and 9x12.
    Any embellishments? Hey, maybe. I'm still learning and I want to try new things. I kind of have a vision of making an actual scrapbook style on one of the 9x12 pages.
    Consistency? I want to try to make some spreads that look like they "go" together ie in colour or style.
    And of course I promise to actually blog my spreads in the future.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015

    I log all my books that I read on Goodreads (you can add me if you want). At the beginning of the year they let people set reading goals. I decided on 10 books, one book a month with some leeway. I don't read super fast and I wanted to set a goal I could accomplish. In the end I read 25 books!
    I admit I didn't read all of these books in full, so my rule for next year is to only rate books if I read 50% of them.

Top 3 Books:
1. Song of Achilles
2. Girls Like Us
3. A Brides Story Vol. 6

Bottom 3 Books (coincidentally I didn't finish these):
1. White Noise
2. The Lost Art of Dress
3. Blacksad

I think next year's goal should be 11 (one more) or 17 (the median).

November Books

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    Well considering some of the other things I've read, it wasn't that bad. That's not a good review though; "wasn't that bad". I didn't feel a lot of emotional connection to the characters.

    Kind of BS. It sucks because I was really anticipating this one. The world building was non-existent and every time the author did tack on some detail it wasn't very believable. 

    God Damn I loved this book. It had everything I like and was well written. I took a photo of it because I want to do so with all my books in the future (I'm going for a more personal look, but maybe this just looks like shit?) but also I'm looking for this exact copy. Hard backed and with out the blurb about an award.

Collage Bookmarks

     Today I am presenting a "tutorial" of collage bookmarks.

     So first you should gather materials. I have card stock cut into an unofficial bookmark size, mod podge, a glue stick, and a whole pile of magazine cutouts I've been hoarding.

     Collage-ing is inherently random and unique every time. My plan involves just cutting random rectangles and glueing them to the bookmark, wrapping the shapes around to the other side.

      This is part of the way through. As you can see I still have some blank patches because all by shapes were cut by random. I collage both sides, But I like to have one side as the front.

     This is the almost done one. I love the sea slug most of all, and I pre-planned to put it in the foreground.

     Once I finish glue-ing I cover the bookmark with tape. I'm still working on the best process for it, but I suggest lying the tape on the table and smoothing the bookmark down length wise.

    Here is the back. I decoupaged a pattern paper which makes me feel like a pro. (and yes that is the Wonder Girls at the top)
    If any one reads this I may make a better tutorial in the future.

Kombucha Experiments

     So recently I went to a kombucha class. I was on the fence as to weather or not I should go, but I'm glad I did.

     My first brew was given too me by the teacher and I included strawberries.

    This is what my scoby currently looks like (one week old). I don't know what to think about it. I will take more pictures and give more information later!

Re-Comitment

    I have decided I want to start blogging again. I'm not going to have a schedule. Not surprisingly its going to be dedicated to things I like and am doing of late. One idea I have is writing short reviews of all the movies I watch in a month. Another is to have monthly (?) updates on my knitting progress. Its winter now! I must knit!

Hardest Thing About Starting Code

        Weirdly enough one of the hardest things about starting to program is figuring out the programs to type the code in (IDEs). Most people know how to use Microsoft word. I’m using it to type this. If I downloaded some knock off it would be similar and I could figure it out. What makes most IDEs difficult is that you have to go through several menus and settings to get to the actual typing screen; unlike MS word where you just open and type. Take Visual studio for example: I still don’t know how to use it.  If you just google “How to get started in C++” you will get results on how to type “Hello World” not what exact setting to choose. I know I’m taking a risk because I sound stupid, but I really think this has detracted some people from teaching themselves how to code.