Author: Raptor Mama

Oh my gosh, I cannot believe that it is already August! We are now in the homestretch of summer where we have absolutely nothing planned. And I am thrilled! We had an amazing June and July seeing friends and family and now we’re ready for some relaxing. 🙂

July Goals

1. Finish April 2024. Well, I did get the pics printed so that’s something? Might try and catch up this month.
2. Strawberry Quilt. I actually did finish a chocolate strawberry block, but I hate it and I’m planning to redo it, so partial credit?
3. Cryptozoology Quilt. So fun! I finished the blocks and I’m starting to sew them together.
4. Quilt Show. OMG! So much fun. SO many beautiful quilts!
5. Low Volume Log Cabin. I finished quilting it! Now I just need to figure out how to bind it…

August Goals.

1. Advent Calendar. It’s that time of year when I pull out all of the Bucilla projects. First up, advent calendar! I have 10 ornaments to go and then a bit of trim needs to be added. So close I can taste it! Of course, then I have 3 stocking kits ready to go. So a reasonable goal for August? How about 1 ornament a week.
2. Project Life. I was doing so good… I think I’d like to try and do August in real time while finishing up August and working on May.
3. Cryptozoology Quilt. I’d like to get the top finished so that I can take it down off of the design wall and put my strawberries back up. 🙂
4. Low Volume Log Cabin. I think the goal for this month will be to make the binding.
5. Adventure Time! I’m thinking maybe 1 field trip a week? IDK.
6. School Scrapbooks. Need to remember to do our interviews on the eve of the first day of school. 🙂 I want to try to get some of the pictures printed too.
7. Beach. I need to get back to the beach! Maybe I’ll give the sand heart photo thing another go…
8. Seasonal Decorating? I gave up back in April, but I’d love to get back to this.
9. Planner. I’d love to be more intentional about utilizing my planner.
10. Meal plans? Speaking of, I always say I want to do this and then never do. lol.

And look at that! I actually managed to come up with 10 goals. It’s a Christmas miracle!

Um, it’s July 19th July 20th as I’m writing this. Not sure there’s much of a point to making goals this late in the game, but I’m a creature of habit so here goes…

June Goals.

1. April 2024 Project Life. Well, I did a layout yesterday, does that count?
2. May 2024 Project Life. lol
3. Organize Library. Still loads of work to be done in here, but we were able to use it as a passable guest room!
4. Africa Scrapbook. Soon!!!
5. Strawberry Quilt. I don’t know how many blocks I started the month with, but I’m up to 12!
6. Clean all the things. Done (ish)
7. Watercolor. I’ve been having a blast with this!
8. Summer Plans. hahahahahahahaha
9. School Scrapbooks. Done!
10. Survive. Debatable.

July Goals.

1. Finish April 2024 Project Life. I only have one layout to go so this feels doable.
2. Strawberry Quilt. I got a bunch of brown scraps from my grandmother when we went to Texas and I’m hoping to get the chocolate strawberry done!
3. Cryptozoology Quilt. OMG. This one is so fun and so quick! I’d love to finish piecing the blocks this month.
4. Quilt Show. I’m going to the quilt show with one of my friends and I’m so excited!
5. Low Volume Log Cabin. I’d like to pull this bad boy out and spend at least an hour on the machine quilting. Now that we basically live in Canada, we actually need more blankets! And I’ve got to get better at machine quilting.
6. Survive.
7. Survive.
8. Survive.
9. Survive.
10. Survive.

Figuratively speaking of course. There’s no swimming here yet. lol But after today, we only have 8 more days of school. So close! Not gonna lie, it’s been hard watching all of our Texas friends swimming and in full on summer mode, but it will be our turn soon. :). Let’s see how we did in May.

1. April 2024. Nope. But I am printing out week 16 now so progress? More importantly, I continue to LOVE only doing Project Life plus inserts.
2. May 2024. hahahahahaha
3. Africa Scrapbook. I’ve gotten 2 out of 11 days worth of photos culled. Only 9 to go!
4. Strawberry Quilt. In a surprise burst of motivation, I’ve actually completed 8 strawberry blocks! I need either 25 or 30 depending on how I do the backing fabric. We’ll see how long my sojo lasts.
5. Quilt Guild. Another bust. I’m starting to think I should just join the statewide Modern Quilt Guild?
6. RaptorDad’s birthday. Success!
7. Survive.
8. Survive.
9. Survive.
10. Survive. Well, I’m still here and all of my lessons are ready to go for the rest of the week. So close!

June Goals:

1. April 2024 Project Life. So many fun things happened in April and I want to scrap them while the memories are fresh!
2. May 2024 Project Life.
3. Organize library. This is our family crafting space and it looks like a tornado went through the craft store and then dumped it all here. My goal for this summer is for this to be a usable craft space PLUS guest room for Casa Blanca this summer.
4. Africa Scrapbook. Maybe I can cull 2 more days worth of photos?
5. Strawberry Quilt. I’d love to get another 5 or 6 blocks done.
6. Clean all the things. OMG, we have guests coming soon. YIKES!!! Commence panic cleaning. Just kidding, I’m going to finish this blog post and then go play with the pictures I just printed.
7. Watercolor. I’ve been playing with making my own watercolored project life cards and I am loving it!!! I want to make some time to play this month.
8. Summer plans. ok. I don’t think I’m going to buy them summer workbooks this year, but I do think I’m going to start a summer schedule. As in, Monday is library day. Tuesday is baking day. IDK. Something like that.
9. School Scrapbooks. Must remember to do last day of school pictures and interviews!
10. Survive.

What can I say, I’m a little behind on, oh, everything. lol. But let’s see how we did in April, shall we?

1. March 2024. Nope. Although I do have the pictures printed.
2. April 2024. Hahahahahahahaha.
3. Birthday Party. Well, I almost had a heart attack when I woke up and it was RAINING, but it stopped just in time for their party and everyone had a lovely time!
4. Summer Plans. Um, I signed Xander up for a week of day camp?
5. Quilting. So much fun! And a goal I actually met! I have a block and a half done and I’m having a blast.
6. Eclipse. AMAZING!!! I was worried about everything (naturally) but the sky was clear and it was amazing!
7. Africa Scrapbook. I’ve started! I didn’t make a ton of progress, but I’ve started!
8. Quilt Guild. Somehow I missed that there wasn’t a meeting in April either. ::sob:: I’m going to give it one more try in May.
9. April Break Plans. A success!!! Mostly because other people made plans and invited us along. lol.
10. Survive. Debatable.

May Goals

1. April 2024. I want to get the pics for these weeks printed.
2. May 2024. I want to get these pics printed as well.
3. Africa Scrapbook. First goal is to cull the (thousands of) photos and print the best one for each day as a 10×8.
4. Strawberry Quilt. I’d love to finish the block I’m working on and start a 3rd!
5. Quilt Guild. Fingers crossed.
6. RaptorDad’s birthday is the 12th! I need to plan all the things!
7. Survive until the end of the school year.
8. Survive until the end of the school year.
9. Survive until the end of the school year.
10. Survive until the end of the school year.

You guys! It’s April! And I took a long term sub job that started last week and will go through the end of the school year. It’s crazy, but also exciting. :). That does mean that I don’t have quite as much time to craft, but the kids are sweet and I love being up at their school. That said, I was not at all sad when we had a snow day today! Let’s see how March went.

1. March 2024. Well, I was doing great until I took the long term sub job, but that’s ok. I just finished up week 11 this morning and I’m still loving this new system.
2. September 2023. Nope. Didn’t even look at this.
3. Africa Scrapbook. I didn’t get much photo editing done, but I did decide that I wanted to watercolor my cards for it. I’ve been practicing and it’s so much fun!
4. School Scrapbooks. Nope.
5. Prep for Visitors. Yes! We had the best time!
6. Easter. We made it! It didn’t feel like Easter, but the kids were good at Mass and we had a fun tea party for my birthday so I’m counting it as a win!
7. Hexies. I got them bound! Now I just need to finish quilting them. One day…
8. 2019 Scrapbook. Nope.
9. Eclipse. Well, I made sure I had the day off of work before I took the sub job, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. lol.
10. Beach. It’s actually been pretty chilly! But I did run over to the beach after I took my bestie back to the airport and it was perfection.

April?

1. March 2024. I want to finish this and I think I can do it as I only have 2 weeks left.
2. April 2024. I do not think I’ll be able to get these pages done, but I do want to keep up with the photo editing/ printing. I can do the editing during my downtime during the day so I think this is possible. Then next fall when the kids are back at school, all of the pictures will be ready for me to scrap!
3. Birthday Party. omg. The twinsies are turning 9! In like a week and a half! We did manage to get invitations out so that’s something. I need to plan some stuff for the actual party though.
4. Summer Plans. I’m not doing a theme for the whole summer, but I do think I want to do weekly themes? Also trying to think of a lose daily/ weekly structure so that we are not sitting around the house all summer irritating each other.
5. Quilting. I decided to start a new quilt that’s been on my list for a while- a scrappy strawberry quilt! I’m hoping I can get one block done this month. 🙂
6. Eclipse! The eclipse y’all!!! I’m so freaking excited!
7. Africa Scrapbook. I want to set aside some time to work on this. 🙂
8. Quilt Guild. I tried to go to the meeting this month, but I think I must have gotten the date wrong as no one was there. ::sigh:: I need to try again next month!
9. April Break Plans. The kids and I have a week off in April. I want to plan some fun day trips I think!
10. Survive? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

We made it through February! And now things are starting to warm up a bit but more importantly, THE SUN IS BACK! And I’ve made some big changes to my memory keeping projects and I love it! Let’s do goals first, shall we?

February Goals.

1. Vacation. We made it! And it was wonderful!
2. August 2023 Project Life. I actually got this done! It’s a miracle!
3. Hexies. Well, I got them all stabilized and I got them bound enough to take to Texas. lol. I could finish the binding in an evening I think, but I’m so sick of it that I need a break.
4. February 2024 Project Life. Done!
5. February 2024 Scrapbooks Pages. Done as they’re gonna get! I’ve decided to abandon the scrapbooks going forward in favor of a more robust project life system with loads of inserts. I’m loving this system so much! Maybe I’ll even write up a blog post about it…
6. Valentine’s Day Theme. I never did write up a blog post about it, but she did enjoy the sensory bin! And she’s delighted with the St. Patrick’s Day one I put together for March!
7. 2019 Scrapbook Assessment. Nope. I didn’t even look at this.
8. Meet People. I did, in fact, go to the guild meeting! And everyone was super nice and I’m super glad that I went!
9. Game Night. This is still a work in progress, but I did make a tonk! We also played some board games in Texas with my mom- Monopoly and The Game of Life. But the 1960’s version of the Game of Life. It was hysterical! At one point I was entertaining an “Ambassador from Mars.” Love it!
10. King Cake. This did not happen this year and I’m trying to be ok with that.

So March Goals?

1. March 2024 Project Life. I’d like to keep current which will include adding inserts as needed. I’m loving how streamlined this makes memory keeping. And since I don’t feel like I’m scrapping every picture and story twice, I’m really enjoying being more creative with my layouts.
2. Finish September 2023 Project Life. This one is a bit of a stretch because it includes my trip to Africa, but maybe?
3. Africa Scrapbook. I am actually super excited about this. To the point that we finally broke down and bought a large format photo printer! I’m so stinking excited. I’d like to finish mapping out the structure for the album and decide on the full page photos for the start and stop of each day.
4. School Scrapbooks. Speaking of large format photos, I’m super excited to be able to update the kids’ school scrapbooks! They are designed to have an 8×8 photo of each kid on the first and last day of school and I am woefully behind on printing them.
5. Prep for Visitors! One of my besties is coming up for a visit this month and I am so freaking excited! Then my mom is coming up in April! Yay!!!
6. Easter. Easter is going to be another hard one for me. It’s a big time family holiday for me- usually my aunt and uncle and cousins all come up from Houston and we have a big celebration for Easter and my grandmother’s (and my) birthday. Obviously this year we will be celebrating alone. I need to brainstorm some strategies to avoid the sads and to help the kids make some new traditions.
7. Hexies. I’d like to get these bound! And lay them out and figure out how much more quilting I need to get done.
8. 2019 Scrapbook? Maybe I can make myself work on this. It’s pre covid- so… it’s depressing. We’ll see.
9. Eclipse. Make plans for the Eclipse!
10. Beach? I’m missing the beach. And it’s finally getting warmer! Maybe I’ll make it down there in March.

There you have it! Some goals for March and only a day late. lol

Let’s see how we did in January.

1. December 2023 Project Life. Done! And I learned how to print photos from my phone which is exponentially faster than emailing them to myself and printing from the computer.
2. December 2023 Scrapbook. Nope, didn’t even look at this and I’m honestly ok with that.
3. Rainbow Stairs. Welp, the shipping on those vinyl things is $30!!! Needless to say, the paint is looking more and more attractive. Side note: I have no idea why paying for shipping makes me so crazy. lol
4. Snowflake Theme. The sensory bin was the only thing that got done, but Mia loved it! I even caught Xander playing with it a few times.
5. Stabilize Hexies. Not quite there, but I’m so freaking close I can taste it!
6. Start Subbing. Done! And it’s been great. It feels really good to be getting back in the school (and seeing other adults!)
7. Prep for Trip. The only trip prep I’ve done is to look at flights for this summer. hahahahahaha
8. Walk Every Day. I honestly didn’t bother tracking this, but now that we have to walk the freaking dog 45 times a day I feel like I’m doing pretty good here.
9. Paint Bedroom. Done! And I love it!
10. Thank You Notes. Done!

And I didn’t put it in the goals (how?!?) but I actually finished January 2024 Project Life AND the January 2024 scrapbook pages! It’s a miracle! Figuring out how to print photos directly from my phone made a huge difference! I know I say this every year, but I am really super duper hoping that I can stay caught up this year. hahahahahahahaha

And now some February Goals!

1. Vacation in Texas! We get to fly home for a week in February when the kids have their school break. I still need to plan all the things!
2. August 2023 Project Life. Slowly trying to fill in some gaps in the older books.
3. Finish stabilizing/ binding hexies. I’m so close!!!
4. February 2024 Project Life.
5. February 2024 Scrapbook Pages.
6. Valentine’s Day Theme. OMG. I redid Mia’s whole desk area and she is beyond thrilled! Along with that, I made her a Valentine’s Day sensory bin. I’m going to try and write a blog post about it next week. 🙂
7. 2019 Scrapbook Assessment. Ugh. I think I only have 2 months left to finish out this book. I’m not sure if I’ll get to this or not, but I’d like to figure out which pages I’m actually going to do and find/ print those photos. A big part of the problem is that photos these old are no longer on my phone or my computer.
8. Meet People. EEEPPP!!! I think I’m going to try to go to the local quilt guild meeting this month.
9. Game Night. We played a silly table top game called Tonks in January and even Mia decided to play with us. It’s rare when we find an activity that everyone actually enjoys so I was pretty thrilled when everyone had a great time. I’d like to make my own Tonk and make a base battleboard grid thing.
10. King Cake. Mardi Gras is coming up y’all! And I don’t think I’m going to find a tasty king cake at the local grocery store. hahahahahaha. I need to dig out my recipe and make this for the kids.

And there you have it! I think I’m most excited about working on Project Life this month. 🙂