Fitting it all in

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A couple of days ago I went to my Monday evening crop and made a start on my new Disney album. Once again I return from a lovely trip with over 400 photos and I have all these big plans… but this time it’s different!

I will not be repeating the mistake I made the last time when I worked on an 8x8 album: this time I’ve gone for a gorgeous 12x12 and I’m using the PDQ Bisous papers so little embellishment is needed. I’ve also become a lot more selective on photos and didn’t pick up tons of souvenir papers while away so I don’t need to fit in hundreds of menus, tickets, maps, etc.

I spent an evening about 2 weeks ago sorting through it all, getting all the papers, the embellishments (some leftover from last album!), the photos themselves and all the souvenir stuff I collected. It all looks massive once together but it means that I can just grab the one bag and know that it is all there and I’m ready to go.

So during the Monday crop I made 10 layouts. Ten in 3 hours – it’s good isn’t it? I am pleased with the album so far and, while I do love the finished article, this time I made better choices than for last trip’s 8x8 album.

I reckon that I can finish this in about a month, assuming I have the time to actually work on it. Because now I also have to fit in my training runs (which are going well, by the way. I’ve signed up for a half marathon in July as prep for the full in January so let’s see how that goes) and all the rest of my life. So the fact that this album will come together quickly is great news as it means I can finish it and get the memories on paper soon rather than spending ages on it and not being able to share it with anyone yet.

While I was in JoAnn’s in Florida (on a lovely visit on my own as the boys stayed behind in the hotel pool) I spent a good long time looking through all the nice things on sale there. I love browsing in American shops, so many interesting things to look at… anyway; I was wandering about the aisles of this huge store when the beads caught my eye. I’ve never really been anything other than a paper crafter but I love chunky, sparkly jewelry so the display caught my eye because it looked so pretty. I ended up buying a few strings and a beginner’s beading kit.

Since we’ve been home I’ve made the 3 bracelets that came in the kit along with a few others from my new beads and I’ve started buying more beads… oh no! I can feel the interest growing to a fevered pitch, just like scrapbooking did.

The question is: will I have time to do it all? Even with my super-quick album pages, my perfectly organized running schedule and my limited bead supply (not to mention my full-time job and my family) is there room in my life for another hobby??

On the plus side, I have so many pretty, sparkly things to wear!

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