Three weeks in the Patagonia Jan 14 summary in numbers

Time flies when you are having fun! How did you do with your goals and intentions on the first month of 2014? After a bit of a misshap at the end of January when we came back home from our Patagonian summer holidays it seems it was not as bad as it looked and I am somewhat back on track. :D

Sooo where am I standing? My goals sheet is much more linear and tidy than 2013´s. Same concept, less lines, all colour coded, one side for on line goals, another one for home/family goals. *sigh of relief at the sight of codes in lines instead of doodles* ;)

2013´s goals

 One of the projects that I brought to an end in its former form was my Creative Every Day challenge  led by Leah Piken Kolidas. I´ve taking at least a picture a day for the whole year for the past four ones and presenting a weekly update.  The update will now take a montly form, right in time to summarize it in numbers for the My month in numbers feature by Julie Kirk.  Here are some inspirational instructions on how to go about it. Yep, two-in-one, I´ve been known to multitask that way before. :D

I´m keeping 485 of the holiday pictures taken this month with my Sony Cyber-shot and my Samsung S4. Neither Daniel nor Tati have handed med their iPod pics yet! *taps foot and looks around waiting* I also have 19 non hols pictures.

Talking about pictures: last year I led "Life on the Go" for Art Every Day Month in November. It was project which had daily picture prompts with a cool group of people from all over the world, sharing their view on daily life. From the seasonal fruit to the buses, from the breakfast table for six to the take away for one, from their knitting to their moving boxes, from the birthday cake decorated with Angry Birds to the books on their side table. Life. Glorious, ordinary life. We became a merry band of sisters and kept the project alive for another month and then another and yet another. 

Here are my takes on the prompts for January. If you want the ones for February join my Paula - Buenos Aires page! Remember to mark it as "Get notifications" for them to show up on your feeds every day. :)

Missed the one on the 29th!

My "go out" goals for 2014 are 6 new places to eat, 2 craft fairs, 2 animé exhibitions and 3 new Museums. Not counting Bariloche´s although we did visit a lovely craft fair and an art exhibit.

A few of the stands of the Feria de las Picadas

My "hobbies" goals include: 60 layouts (0 in Jan), 12 fiction books (0 in Jan), 6 non fiction (3 for Jan! ) and 6 rereadings (1 began in Jan).

February plans:

Participate in "29 Faces" February´s edition. This is a fun project that takes place twice a year, in February and September. Whenever I make the time for it I see improvement in my drawing. Wanna join? Click here!

Feb 2013 summary / March 2013 plans

For Creative Every Day challenge 2013 by Leah Piken Kolidas, I´m taking at least a picture a day for the whole year. This is my fourth time around with the Pic-a-day project and at the end of each month I make a mosaic of the month´s pictures and also summarize it in numbers for the My month in numbers feature by Julie Kirk.  Here are some inspirational instructions on how to go about it. I´ve taken 059 out of the possible  059 pictures for 2013 so far.

Final 12 out of the 29 Faces for February, a project By Ayala Art. There were some more doodles but not big ones like these. Sharing them for PPF

28 (one-a-day) out of the 166 pictures I will keep for Feb ´13. Click on the mosaic to see it bigger.

I turned 46 and our son Mati turned 17 on the same day, the 12th.
We tried 2 new places to eat: La Leonilda (San Isidro) and Chegusán (Villa Ballester)
2 animé exhibitions: one at the Japanese Gardens and the other one at the San Isidro horse track

We met Cristina Hernández, who is the voice in Spanish for Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway plus characters like Blossom from The Powerpuff girls.

Numbers for the rest of the year:

Last month I asked you if you´d be up for a seconds series of decluttering and organizing your home spaces. Sooooooo, by popular demand: "Keep it simple, make it work" starts this Sunday! Yay!

In case you´re wondering what we´ll be doing:

9 months to streamline your home spaces and systems

3 months for the practical spaces: kitchen, bathrooms, laundyroom

3 months for the shared areas: entry hall, livingroom, diningroom

3 months for the personal spaces: bedrooms, office, craftroom

1 big task each week and daily {gentle} reminders, tips and cheering at my Facebook page. 

More plans for March? 

* Keep scrapbooking for my UKScrappers´ team 

* A tiny bit of painting once a week for Paint Party Fridays.

* My month in numbers feature

* Participate in Wishcasting Wednesdays and Full Moon Boards projects 

Want to be a guest here? You can show me your space or illustrate the week´s number. Send me a message to paulabuenosairesblog@gmail.com !

More faces for February 2013

I´m participating in Ayala Art´s project 29 Faces this February. It is my third time with this series as I really enjoy seeing the different styles of portraits, make new friends and I´ve also seen the progress I´ve made with it in each round . I´m up to 12 and I´m sharing these at Paint Party Friday.

You can click on each picture to make it bigger. :)

A strange thing happened this week. I made the sketches first and I felt I was going backwards instead of forward!  The previous faces looked better. Hopefully this week´s will look better with colour. Or I might just go on with the faces themselves until I have some I like.
This is where I copied the faces from:

The faces:

Progress on the 29 faces for February 2013

I´m participating in Ayala Art´s project 29 Faces this February. It is my third time with this series as I really enjoy seeing the different styles of portraits, make new friends and I´ve also seen the progress I´ve made with it in each round . I´m up to 5 and I´m sharing these at Paint Party Friday.

You can click on each picture to make it bigger. :)

I put my faces on the dining room wall

I decided to do something different and I went for "odd" colours. Or maybe I was just feeling blue that day.

Face in blues

 And more hopeful the next.

Face in greens

 Pensive.

Face in oranges

These are the OhLaLá! magazine pictures I copied the faces from (the second one is just "based" as I couldn´t get it to look like her)

On other news:

Big programme starting here on March 4th. A slow paced, deep decluttering and functional system for your home. You´ll have a lighter space and easy maitenance routines to make your life easier.

 I´m already posting early tips and foundation tasks on my Facebook page! Hope you like it. :)

29 Faces for PPF

Ok, not really 29 yet but I´m on my way and sharing to Paint Party Friday.

I´m participating in Ayala Art´s project 29 Faces this February. It is my third time with this series as I really enjoy seeing the different styles of portraits, make new friends and I´ve also seen the progress I´ve made with it in each round  .
Funny radom fact: I´m participant #100! I love round numbers. :D

My first face, painted with Caran D´Ache and EK pencils:

 She reminded me of Anna Belknap from CSI New York  but is really a copy from this magazine cover. :)

Face #02:

 On other news, for those who didn´t stop by on Wednesday:

By popular demand my decluttering and organizing series will be back this year! The project feels thrilling and scary at the same time. I love structure but hate routine. I need a plan to guide me and keep it fun not to bore me (and you in the process). 

I´m coming up with a 9 month plan divided in three areas: the practical, the aesthetic and the personal. I´m working, working, working on the tasks and the sources.

When? From March 4th. 

Where? Here, every Monday for task settings. Daily at my Facebook page for tips, quotes, fun stuff and {gentle} reminders. 

The plan? One room per month, one theme within the room per week. Decluttering encouragement and organizing advice to make your daily life easier.

BTW: if you are following me on Facebook, please remeber to click on Show in Feeds.

Projects for empty jars by Deborah Nicholas

For Paint Party Friday I will show you my work so far for Ayala Art´s  29 faces in September. You can find what I did for May´s edition here.

Have you gathered all your jars this week?
Let me introduce you to my friend, author Deborah Nicholas. A fabulous mom of 5, talented scrapbooker, and awesome baker, she will give you ideas on what to do with your empty jars.
Thank you so much for having me as a guest and a huge hello to all your fabulous followers!

If youre anything like me you dont throw things away, its always saved and popped into the back of the cupboard to be kept for 'later'.
Well, that later is now :)
It takes a couple of minutes to make some fabulous gifts or simple seasoned foods. Fasten with ribbons and a swing tag and you will be left with a present that looks like an expensive store bought treat!

Here are a few samples of what you could make....
Maldon Sea Salt Flakes infused with Chilli - this will give a nice kick
to your cooking!

Vanilla Sugar - simple caster sugar with hidden vanilla pods. Use instead of plain sugar on strawberries for a decadent treat!

Virgin Chilli Oil - virgin olive oil with sea salt, chilli flakes and whole chillies. This would make a fabulous gift for a foodie who likes a little heat!!

Cupcakes or Cookies in a Jar - layer the dry ingredients for the recipient to bake at home themselves. Add a little swing tag with the method and wet ingredients they should add, pop on a baking temperature and time for a DIY gift.

Remember jars can be used for decoration too....simply pour a little paint in and swirl until the inside is covered. Hold upside down until the excess paint runs out then allow to dry. Voila custom pen pots or plant holders , colour co-ordinated to your decor!

I also store things in jars, whether it be bags of nuts and dried fruit (you just know those little self seal stickers on the bags will pop off exposing the contents to air - jars dont do that!) ;)
How about popping all of your cupcake cases into large jars or storage containers to display - it seems a shame to have such pretties hidden away!

Well, I hope I have given you at least a couple of ways to use those jars - please share what you do with yours! :)

You can find Debbie on line at her blog Country Heart and home and her Facebook page Frills and Fondant.
Her book "Gifts from the kitchen" is available for pre order at Amazon.

Writing Letters

Happy Bloggaversary to me! My blog Happysnappy is 7 years old today. :)

For Paint Party Friday I will show you my work so far for Ayala Art´s  29 faces in September. You can find what I did for May´s edition here.

Still working the grey scales.

Have you gathered all your cardboard boxes this week?
I´m absolutely honoured to have freelance designer, craft tutor and artist Tracey Grundy from Paper Craft Junkies as a guest. She will show us how to make this delightful "Letters to Santa" letter box out of an empty cereal box!

Here are the steps for the

:

1. Take an empty cereal box and open it out so that it is flat and ready to be decorated. Depending on the size of the cereal box measure and cut an angled opening at the top of the box
2. Adhere patterned paper to the outside of the box. Do the same with the inside of the box with a contrasting paper.
3. Re-assemble the box using a PVA adhesive to ensure it will 'stay stuck'.
4. Wrap washi tape around the corners and edges of the box to hide any gaps you may have possibly showing the cereal box underneath.
5. Stick the alpha’s to spell out the words for your 'Letter Box' onto card ribbon with foam pads then adhere to the front of the box.
6. Embellish the rest of the box as you desire.

To get to know Tracey better I asked her to tell us something about herself:

My name is Tracey Grundy and I live in the UK with my gorgeous family - my husband of 18 years, my 13 year old daughter, our cat and dog. I have been 'arty & crafty' as far back as I can remember, but got into paper crafting about 10 or more years ago. When I was at school I did an advanced qualification in Art but didn't take it any further. Unfortunately about 4 years ago I had to give up work due to ill health and got back into drawing. I had that many sketches and drawings of made up characters that I decided to see if anyone else would like them as digi images. Having recently put them on my blog shop, I am slowly but surely adding to the list of images. I am now building up a Design Team to start our fortnightly challenges from 1st October 2012 also.
I obviously love card making but especially like the technicality of making moving, swinging or sliding cards and boxes etc.
I am also a freelance designer for Cardmaking & Papercrtaft and Quick Cards Made Easy magazines.
My blog is: http://www.papercraftjunkies.com

Thank you Tracey for this lovely project!

Each Monday I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical for storage or crafty for recycling. Come back next Monday for more! :)