January Update

I haven't been blogging (or visiting the blogs of my friends) as much as I had hoped to in the new year, as I've been busy with several projects. It's all good stuff and I feel very lucky to have work that I enjoy so much! Like everyone, I just wish I had a few more hours in the day!

I've been very fortunate to have picked up quite a bit of contract work for three crafting books which will be published later this year. I started working on these projects last June and expect to finish the last set by spring. I'm really pleased with the projects I've been creating and am very anxious to see the completed publications!

At the moment, I'm busy working on several projects and getting ready for a few upcoming classes. Just this past weekend, I taught another recipe album class -- always a good time. I enjoy swapping kitchen disaster stories with folks in my recipe classes! One of my goals is to get my own recipes a bit more organized this year. I recently moved my most-used recipes to a 3-ring binder and need to consolidate the rest of them.

This coming Friday evening, I'll be teaching a mini-album class. We'll be making a 4x6 album from a journaling pad -- taking it completely apart and putting it back together in a different format. Should be a fun and interesting class!

On Saturday, I'll be teaching one of my very favorite classes, Get Organized Challenge. I've updated the class with new storage ideas and many more "before and after" pictures. I will be repeating this class in March for those who can't make it this time, or anyone who wants to come again. I would love it if my own space were done by March! That might be wishful thinking...

The first week in February, I'll be teaching another in the series of mini-albums I've been doing for the past year using We R Memory Keepers 4x6 pads. This one is from the Love Struck line, which is a pretty adorable product set.

Also in February, I'll be teaching a Year of Cards class twice! We'll be making 12 all-occasion cards which I created using a single sheet of Echo Park journaling cards. This set was really fun to design and I'm excited to share it with everyone.

I just finished up another WRMK mini-album for March. This one is made using the adorable new Cotton Tail line. You can't go wrong with chocolate bunnies! You'll find lots of inking, embossing and Distress Stickles in this one.

I also just put the final touches on another mini-album, this one made with a 7 Gypsies acrylic album and some beautiful Authentique paper. This project is one of my recent favorites.

I'm really excited to teach this class in late April!

In February, I signed up to be one of 50 hosts for an international blog hop sponsored by an online crafting community. I've never done this before so am looking forward to learning about the process. I'll be posting more about the blog hop soon!

 So you can see that I have much to look forward to in the coming weeks. Here's to continued productivity...and more than a few Starbucks runs! Thanks for stopping by! :)

jp