I am soooooo not into blogging right now!

It's been more than a month since I last posted. I think my blogging mojo ran away. My scrapping mojo is still here, though, so I've been scrapping regularly and enjoying it a lot! I've also spent quite some time organizing my digital supplies (and physical scrap space too!) and everytime I find something that I love (which is quite often, since I got rid of almost everything I don't really love) I'm tempted to stop organizing and start scrapping! LOL Who said procrastination?? ;) Anyway, in the meantime I'll "go with the flow" and keep doing what makes me happy, I'm sure I'll go back to blogging eventually!

Oh, I almost forgot: I've been faithfully keeping up with P365: both daily photos and weekly LOs are done regularly. Ain't it great?? I'm so proud! LOL

Wow, so inspiring!

Thanks to PDS I've just discovered this blog about Vivian Maier's photography. She wasn't a professional photographer but her pictures are absolutely amazing. She has "the eye" to take ordinary life and make it art. I love it when I "meet" those kind of artists that make you see life with a whole new perspective. The novels of Daniel Pennac are the same to me: he talks about every day situations but with so much talent that it looks like an extraordinary adventure. Love that!

First P365 LO of the year!

Click in my flickr slideshow (on the right) for credits!

I can't believe I actually created a LO! I'm so proud for starting my P365 on such good bases!!

My boss...

Tonight I had a pretty intense discussion with my boss. He's a jerk sometimes - often, even! - but he's intelligent and he has a great ability to understand who people are. He often points out the real facts, even if they aren't always nice ones it's good to have an exterior point of view of how you work. Anyway, it was pretty intense because I was crying like mad (I often have very emotional reactions with him, don't know why) but it gave me the opportunity to reflect on what I want from and for my job, what I don't want, what I expect of it and what I expect of myself. I think, once the drama is over, that this discussion will make me grow and move forward. I especially had the chance to realize two important things, one when we were talking and one when I was home and talked with DBF about it. Despite being hard to go through, I think that kind of event can be positive on the long term.

My word for the year

I've chosen the word PERSPECTIVE as my inspiration for 2011. I hesitated for a long time between this one, focus, priorities and "let go", but I think that the word I finally picked covers all the other ones. I want to focus on the big picture, keep my priorities in an appropriate order and let go of the unimportant things, and all those concept are included in the word perspective. I want to stop sweating the small stuff and creating drama, and this word seems like a good reminder to me. I want to create a LO/visual reminder that I could have around to help me all year long, I'll work on that as soon as I'm done backing up my EHD. I'll also start preparing my resolutions, even though I don't want to create any pressure on myself and I want to have a positive and doable approach to them this year.

Happy new year!!

Yep, it's 2011 already! I've had better starts into the new year, I have to admit it: I'm sick and my EHD (where I store ALL my scrap stuff) is acting crazy. Gasp!! Hopefully I can solve this problem before going back to work on Monday (and hopefully I'll get better enough to go back to work!).

Have you worked on your goals/resolutions for this year? Do you take those? Do you keep them? As usual, I'm planning to make some, starting with completing a P365... finally! I've taken my first pic today, so far so good! LOL

I've also started to work on my word of the year and resolutions, even though I'm not sure that I want to make "real" resolutions this year with all the changes that are (hopefully) coming! Maybe I'll just have weekly or monthly goals, we'll see. I'll make a decision before Monday anyway!

Merry Christmas!!

Thanks to computer magic, as this post is published I should be in a car, on my way to Switzerland to celebrate Christmas with my family and friends.

I wish you a very happy Christmas celebration, full of love and warmth.

P365's plan

As I mentioned before, I really want to complete a P365 this year. Since I've failed twice already, I want to plan a bit more to make sure that I won't have excuses to give up. I've seen two way to do this so far: have weekly or monthly themes or daily prompts that are repeated every month. This year will hopefully be a year of change if we get pregnant, so it's hard for me to plan themes until the end of the year, so I picked the second plan: I listed daily prompts that I will repeat every month.

Some prompts are ones I want to complete every months, the other ones are here "just in case", if (when) I need some extra inspiration. Here are the mandatory ones:

•  "This month looks like..." (a pic of my garden and house)
• Self portrait
• portrait of G
• G and I
• Flamby (our cat)
• Kira (our dog)
• Something home-related
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Clothes
• TV
• Books
• Something weight-related
• And all the colors: black, white, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple (one pic for each)

And here are the additional prompts:

• Something organized
• Something messy
• Friends
• Family
• Something artistic
• Our town
• Plants
• Snack

I've also listed some monthly themes, even though I'm not sure I'll use those:

• January: goals/resolutions
• February: love/favorites
• March: fun
• April: spring
• May: nature
• June: animals
• July: vacation
• August: summer
• September: school/learning
• October: fall
• November: thankful
• December: Christmas

I'm getting ready for Christmas and vacation!!

Yep, it's about time! I'm leaving very early on the 24th, I'll go to Switzerland for 3 days and then at my grandparents for another 3 days. It'll be an eating marathon with at least 5 different Christmas celebrations in less than a week, but I'm really excited to see my family and friends. My handmade gifts are almost done and I can't wait to give them, hopefully they'll like it! Still have a couple pix to print to finish a mini album and an ingredient to buy, but besides that I should be good.

Oh, and of course, I also have to pack... Woopeedoo! LOL

Preparing for P365

One of my 101 in 1001 projects is to complete a P365: take one pic a day for a whole year. I've stopped quite early for two years in a row, but hopefully if I plan more I'll be more successful. And since 2011 will likely be an important year for us (10th anniversary, hopefully the year we'll get pregnant), I want to document it.

I've already started to think about it and here are some useful resources:

• Discussion at SSD
• Discussion at TDC
• Heather Greenwood's plan
• Week in the life inspiration at WCS (check the following posts as well!)
• P365 tips at Photojojo
• Photo projects inspiration at WCS (check the following posts as well!)
• and last but not least P365 and other alternative @ The daily Digi.

I'll definitely post my plan when I'm done with it!!

3 handmade Christmas gifts done!

Yesterday I finished my mom's gift. Pfew, it feels great! Now onto batch preparations... and nope, I won't tell more here, some receivers are reading! LOL

Hey, december, what are you doing here??

What do you mean, "it's that time of year again"??? Already?????

Yeah, I can't believe we've already entered 2010's last month!! I'm trying to get my Christmas gifts done. I've already finished my dad's and Guy's nephew's, I'm working on my mom's and my best friend's kids' are bought. Still have a couple left before I can be done, though, but it feels good to be started at least!

I'm really busy at work but not in panic mode as I usually am at that time of the year, and that feels great too. Learning to keep healthy distances with my job has helped a lot!

We've had our first days of snow and the temperatures have been really low, it definitely feels like winter here. I've taken my little tree out and it's decorated since last weekend, so that puts me in Christmas mood as well.

The only thing I'm not sure of yet is how I'll travel during my vacation. With my divorced parents, my grandparents and huge family and my friends that I want to see too, I'm usually very busy during the couple days I travel. I get headache to plan when to see everybody and all the driving/train trips to go from one place to the other. This year I plan to carpool. I'll use a website that helps you get in touch with stranger that make the same trip as you so that you can travel together. My cousins are fans of this site, I hope it'll work out fine for me too!

Last but not least, I'm already thinking about my 2011 resolutions/goals. I think my theme, my word for the year will be "Let go". 2010 word was "peace" and I think that, even if I didn't complete my monthly goals/mini-resolutions, I'm more peaceful than I was last year. I guess I'm growing up, even when I don't notice it!

Getting back in control...

If I want to feel more like I'm the driver and not stuck in the trunk of the car aka my life, I first need to know how bad things are, make a plan for making them better and get to work. It's easier when I write it down, so here we go! Here's what I want to do before going back to work on Thursday afternoon:

• Exam:
• study the methodology
• check past years' examples the exam is new so there aren't any past examples!
• try to make one "fake" exam in real conditions at home
• prepare my stuff to go to the exam
• Computer stuff:
• get rid of all unread e-mails (read, take action, delete or file) and maintain starting with 37 messages, 10 left
• get rid of all unread RSS posts (read, take action) and maintain
• clean RSS starred posts
• delete enough RSS feeds to get below 40
• 2 x 15 minutes daily on "to dispatch" file This folder is empty and deleted! Woohoooo!
• Home:
• pick up kitchen
• pick up living room
• pick up bathroom
• pick up bedroom
• put away dry laundry from bedroom and from laundry room
• iron clothes every time I'm watching TV
• wash, hang up and put away (when dry) 2 loads of laundry
• wash and hang up 2 new loads of laundry
• change beddings
• clean cat's litter
• plan next week's menus, write down shopping list, go grocery shopping
• finish pending PPW, incl. mail tax payement
• pick up office
• Personal stuff:
• start planning Christmas gifts and vacation
• investigate to make sure if taking a second job would be possible
• if it is, prepare application for job opportunity
• pamper myself
• scrap a couple LOs (monthly ones, to catch up!)
• make Guy's doc appt

Wow, looks like  I'm gonna be busy! LOL

A couple days off...

Man, it feels good! I have an exam on wednesday and I took a few days off to prepare it and pass it. Hopefully I'll be successful, finally (I've already passed it several times), but even if I don't it's good to have some time off. This time of the year is definitely the busiest. It feels like I'm getting one wave after the other, trying not to get drawn but I can barely take a breath of fresh air between each wave... Crazy busy, I tell you!

The worst part of this situation is that I don't feel in control AT ALL, of anything. Very scary and stressful to me (as to anyone else, I guess). I addition to preparing my exam some, I also plan to take some time to get back in touch with my life during this mini-vacation. I desperately need to feel like I can do something about what's going on and not be a victim of it! Those are strong words, but I'm that stressed that I really feel that way.

I need to simplify, focus on the really important stuff, pick my priorities and stick to them, not get distracted by the little things and get focused... Good plan, uh? LOL

Guess who's going to Paris next weekend???

Guy and me! Woohooo, can't wait!! Very spontanous, definitely not our style of organizing a trip, but I don't know when or even if we would have made such a trip without it! LOL Watch out for tons and tons of pictures!!

As "promised"...

...I'm still very busy. I've finally finished the big project at work that I was working on, and I'm starting the next one, so there isn't much time to relax in between! I've also had some time to get all those "little things" done, you know those tasks that can stay there forever because you always think "Oh, I'll do that later, when I have time". Well, guess what, "when I have time" never comes and those pending to-do's keep nagging at me every single day. This situation was starting to affect my mood and my productivity, so I finally took the 2 hours I needed to get those tasks done. Pfew, it feels good!

On a personal level, I've started 2 new activities: I've been taking "body combat" classes, which is a sort of tae bo, for a month, and yesterday I had the first self-defence class. I'm feeling sore this morning but I really liked it. Of course I couldn't get rid of an attacker yet and I've even never been confronted to such a situation (luckily!) but I love the workout and it's useful too, what more can I ask for? And I absolutely love the "body combat" classes, it's so energetic and such a great stress reliever... Perfect for those busy times, I can get all my frustrations out!

Today is the first weekend when I have to take pix for work, but definitely not the last one: I'll have several of those until Christmas break. It may only take an hour, but it's still annoying because it makes me think of work during my free time, so I'm not really free, you know? Good thing is: I know in advance when I have to work like that so I can plan my life around it. And I know when it will be over, it helps when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Oh, I almost forgot, I've got another great news: I'm finally caught up with my 2009 monthly LOs!!! It took me a looooooooong time and I still have the 2010 ones to do, but it feels great to have those memories scrapped!

Messti messes with my routines!

It's messti time in my town. "Messti" is the alsatian word for fair, and it's a big event in our small community. There are roundabouts all over the town, even big carousels (the make-you-puke style... lovely! LOL) Anyway, between that and lots of work to do, I'm so busy I didn't even make my usual weekly plan. I have it in my head, though, I know what I want to accomplish (besides surviving the huge workload, that is): maintain my routines, get back to eating more healthy again, scrap and enjoy some me-time. I don't plan to be more detailed this week... and probably for a more couple weeks too, 'cause the workload isn't going to get lighter anytime soon. I've already scrapped one LO every day since 4 or 5 days... not bad, uh? ;)

Oh, and I've been catching up on the Paperclipping Digi Show, love it!

Thursday

• morning, midday and evening routine (especially the dishes!!)
• min. 20 minutes workout
• maintain e-mail and RSS reader to zero unread
• catch up with TDC, SSD and other scrap site
• 10 minutes on my happiness project
• iron when/if I watch TV 
• 15 minutes digi-organizing

Wednesday

• morning, midday and evening routine (especially the dishes!!)
• min. 20 minutes workout
• maintain e-mail and RSS reader to zero unread
• catch up with TDC, SSD and other scrap site
• 10 minutes on my happiness project
• iron when/if I watch TV 
• 15 minutes digi-organizing
• filing (empty my to-file box)

Good news of the day: my Tae Bo class isn't cancelled after all!! Yay!!

So, the Tae Bo class was led by a Kick Boxing instructor, not the usual one, and I could notice the difference, this one was much more into the "martial art" part, not so much the fitness part. It was fun, though, but I slightly prefer the usual teacher.

Tuesday

• morning, midday and evening routine (especially the dishes!!)
• min. 20 minutes workout I was too tired, slept in this morning and didn't feel like it tonight
• maintain e-mail and RSS reader to zero unread
• catch up with TDC, SSD and other scrap site
• 10 minutes on my happiness project
• iron when/if I watch TV I slept instead... no comment!
• 15 minutes digi-organizing
• 15 minutes PPW