National Blog Posting Month is a worldwide event every November in which bloggers publish a minimum of 1 post every day. This is my 3rd year participating and has also been the most challenging by far. So here we are at the end of the event and I thought it would only be appropriate to end the blogging marathon with a list of tips on how to survive an entire month.

Plan, plan, plan, plan, PLAN!
This is by far the most valuable tip I can give anyone who is wanting to participate in Nablopomo. When you’re trying to write a blog post every day, you have to at least put some thought into it ahead of time so you don’t get stuck.

One of the things I did this year was a topic calendar. A topic calendar is your basic calendar and each day contains an event you know is taking place that day or a possible topic to publish that day. For example, topics you might consider first are: birthdays, holidays, trips, outings. Next you can add topics you’ve always wanted to blog about but haven’t had a chance to actually write.

A topic calendar isn’t anything you have to keep up with religiously. In fact, I only filled it out the last week of October and I only looked at it maybe once a week to see what sort of topics I could blog about if I ever needed some help.

Post Scheduler Can and Should Be Your Best Friend
This is the one thing I wish I had taken advantage of more often this year: the post scheduler. Most blogging software such as Wordpress or TypePad allow you to publish a post ahead of time.

So for example, let’s say most of your free time is on the weekends. You could potentially write several days or an entire week’s worth of posts ahead of time and just schedule each post to publish on a specific date and time.

Make It As Easy As Possible For You To Blog From (Almost) Anywhere
Scenario: it’s 10PM in the evening and you know you haven’t gotten your daily blog post in. Not only a that, but you’re away from home. In fact, a computer isn’t even within easy access. What do you do?

Every once in a while, you may find yourself in a bind where you know you haven’t gotten your daily post in, especially if you didn’t take advantage of the post scheduler mentioned above.

This is where your contingency plan should kick in. So let’s think. If you don’t have access to a computer, what DO you have access to?

You have access to your cell phone of course. And if you have a smartphone with web access, you could just as easily login to your blogging software from your phone and write a quick post from there. If you have an iPhone, check to see if your blogging software offers an app via the App Store.

If your phone isn’t equipped with a usable Web browser or fancy apps, but you can send and receive email from your phone, you might want to look into blogging via email. I know Wordpress by default has a post-by-email feature which is setup to work with your domain’s mail server, I’m not sure about other services like Typepad or Blogger but I would imagine they offered that as well.

Perfection Is a High Bar to Reach
Every once in a while you might have to write a post that’s less than stellar. I know I’ve written a couple of those this month. You know what I mean, the ones that go, “Right now I’m blogging from my phone so I figured I’d just drop a quick post and say hi!” This is where I give you permission let posts like that go. Not that EVERY post can be like that, but I think you should give yourself permission to write a post like that every once in a while. Life happens, you know. Just be sure to make up for it with an awesome post the next day

Much like you might write a post or two that’s only a few sentences long, you may accidentally miss a day or two (but let’s hope it’s no more than that). Of course the point of Nablopomo is to publish a post a day, but like I mentioned before: life happens. It’s just as important to learn how to persevere amidst setbacks.

If you participated in Nablopomo this year, what are your tips for succeeding?

Treasures, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

I bought these 3 papers from Aaron Brothers today at 50% off. I initially went in there to purchase some picture hanging wire, but as I was browsing the aisles, I saw they had their paper racks severely discounted so I picked up a few sheets of 25 x 25″ paper.

The top sheet is called Gold & Turquoise Paisley. It’s basically a sheet of turquoise paper that has a layer of gold on top which lets some of the paper come through.

The next sheet is called Green Mica and has this magical cobblestone texture to it. It’s absolutely gorgeous. This one wasn’t on sale but I absolutely love it. The sales associate said it reminded her mermaid scales.

The third sheet is called Copper Beaded Silk, which is exactly what it reminded me of when I first saw it.

When I was in college, I took an upper level drawng class. This is where I discovered my affinity for paper collage. As one of my final projects in that class, I constructed a book of paper collages made using bits of handmade paper as well as handwritten letters (these are actual letters I had intended to send to someone, but decided not to at the last minute). It was my absolute favorite piece I created that semester. I’ll have to try and find it next time I’m at my parents house because I think it’s still there somewhere among all of my other art class pieces.

At a pub right now with the cuzins. Haven’t gotten a post in yet so I figured before I have my first beer I would say hi.

Hi!

For the first time in 3 years, I stayed home on Black Friday.

The decision came on due to, well, indecision. I browsed the Black Friday papers and I just couldn’t find any great deals I had to have. And well last night was a particularly cold night, which means Izzie slept next to my torso rather than my feet and kept inching closer and closer toward me until I was falling off the bed. I swear, that dog sleeps like a toddler sometimes.

So what am I doing this year? Shopping from the comfort of my own bed. It’s nice, but it’s not exciting.

There’s a strangely exhilarating rush of adrenaline when your alarm clock wakes you up only after 4 hours of sleep on Black Friday. You don’t even have to hit the snooze, that item you’ve been wanting, which now has the huge markdown on it, is enough motivation to get you out of bed. You’re lucky to even get a cup of coffee or a bowl of cereal in you before you’re dressed, keys in hand. And when you step out into the night (because the sun isn’t even up) the cold air is enough of a jolt to get you going.

But that’s just from my point of view

So anyway, this year I’m not partaking in the raising of the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Jabari is in Houston and since he wanted to help me decorate the tree, I’ve decided to wait until December 1st. I’m so used to doing the decorations around this time that instead, I’m listening to holiday music and watching Elf on DVD to make up for the lack of Christmas decorations

By the way, notify the local news station: KRISTINE BOUGHT A  SEWING MACHINE. Yep, that’s right. I’m going to start sewing! Actually, I wanted to start incorporating some stitching into my scrapbook pages, but i figured what the heck? I’ll just kill 2 birds with one stone.

I’d been cruising Hancock Fabrics online, keeping an eye on machines that were going on sale. Initially I planned on getting the basic Janome Sew Mini. It was getting a lot of rave reviews from the ladies at SplitCoastStampers.com and it sounded like it would be perfect for the projects I wanted to do.

But then I saw the Janome 3128, regularly $129.99, on sale for $79.99. Now THAT one was really appealing. It sounded like I could do some of the layout stitching I intended to do with the Sew Mini, but I could probably also do more heavy duty projects.

What did I end up getting? The Janome 3128. I figured I would have a little more flexibility with it. Plus it wasn’t that much more expensive than the Sew Mini. I debated whether or not I wanted to go to the store to get it, but my bed was just too comfortable and outweighed the possibility of taking the machine home today, so I ordered it online I’m so excited though. I’ve been looking at some of the projects on Sew4home.com and it makes me want to start sewing my own linens and drapery.

So far this is my only Black Friday purchase. I don’t plan on buying anything else except for maybe a couple used sewing books from Amazon (or Half Price Books if I happen to pass one while I’m out this afternoon). I’m supposed to have a late lunch with my friends at Bubba’s on Hillcrest so hopefully the surrounding University Park traffic will die down by that time.

Other than that, today will be a no stress Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great day filled with turkey and LOTS OF CARBS. I know mine will since next week Jabari and I are going to start our race to lose weight. Haha.

BTW, I’m typing this on my dad’s 27″ iMac. Sheesh, it’s like blogging on a movie screen.

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving!, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

So this year since it would technically be mine and Jabari’s first Thanksgiving kinda together (I say kinda because he is going to visit his parents in Houston Thanksgiving day), We decided at the last minute we would have a mini Thanksgiving feast.

I did some grocery shopping today since I left the office around 2PM and picked up a turkey breast (which BTW was like $16–is that expensive? That seemed expensive to me but then again I rarely make large roasts) along with various items for sides like stuffing, turkey gravy, and cranberry relish.

I found Ina Garten’s recipe for roasted turkey breast. It seemed simple and easy enough with only a few ingredients. It was exactly what I needed.

And then I decided to cut corners with the rest: Stove Top stuffing from a box (with baby bella mushrooms since that’s Jabari’s favorite), fresh baked french bread, and Steam Fresh green beans (which were still tasty). Baking any kind of roast for me is a lot of stress. I didn’t need to worry about the sides too!

OH–and this cranberry relish thing I mentioned? DEEEE-LISH. I’ve had cranberry sauce before, even this cranberry jelly stuff, but I’ve never had cranberry relish. It wasn’t until my friend Steph mentioned it that I thought Hmm, that’s not such a bad idea. All it is is fresh cranberries, granny smith apples, an orange (which still has the RIND), and tons of sugar. Oh, but I modified the recipes just a little and added about half a cup of chopped walnuts and a sprinkling of cinnamon. MMMMmm MMM!

I was hesitant about the rind because it just seemed so weird. But the desire for a no-stress thanksgiving outweighed my fear so I went for it and I’m glad I did. The rind actually added TONS of orange flavor which I loved (most of the orange flavor is in the zest anyway). The sugar actually countered the bitterness of the pith so I didn’t have to worry about that. Even Jabari, who wanted to save the cranberry relish for last due to uncertainty, even ended up eating the remaining relish straight from the bowl.

And the turkey turned out PERFECT. I was so impressed. And OMG, it tasted awesome. Even when it was cooking, it smelled awesome. It didn’t smell anything like the turkey smell I knew, probably because this version called for a cup of dry wine in the roasting pan (good call). If you ever need a good roasted turkey breast recipe, I highly recommend Ina Garten’s.

December Daily Update, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Ok so far I have 9 layouts planned out. As far as topics, I have roughly 13 (but I need 25).

I’m considering joining Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas. It’s only $32 and membership never expires. You can’t top that. And in fact it actually complements the December Daily album

Supplies:
Paper: Mistletoe & Pear collection from Basic Grey. Ribbon: Classic Traditions satin ribbon from Michael’s

Jabari: You should think about doing a layout a day for a whole month.
Me: Actually, yeah that’s what the December Daily album. I just have to get all the pages and stuff ready and then once December rolls around, all I have to do is take pictures, journal, and maybe finish with some embellishments.
Jabari: See, I’m smart. I didn’t even know you were doing that.
Me: You are! Maybe we should scrapbook together.
Jabari: [Pause] How did we make the leap from me being smart to me being gay?

I’m wondering how many people are actually going Black Friday shopping this year.

Today we got a little bit of a preview of that craziness when we went out to Allen Premium Outlets. For some reason, Allen has always been a million miles away to me, but it turns out it was just a 20 minute drive from where we live. Jabari surprisingly wanted to do some shopping (which is EXTREMELY rare because he hates it) and heard there was a Sketchers outlet store in Allen.

The drive there wasn’t so bad, it was when we drove into the shopping center to park was when we hit traffic. I think it took somewhere around 10 or 15 minutes just to get in mostly because we were fighting a lot of pedestrian traffic. But when we did get in, parking wasn’t so bad if you didn’t mind parking in the middle of the shopping center.

When we got out of the car and found a map to figure out where we were and where we needed to go, we found out that where we needed to go was all the way on the other side of where we were (as our luck would have it). Thankfully we wore our walking shoes.

Jabari and I ended up going different ways and decided we would meet up later since we both had our cell phones. I stopped by the Lane Bryant sore and found a LOT of stuff was 40% off. I ended up buying a grey corduroy blazer and an olive green cami for like $40. I refrained from buying anything else because I had one more stop I wanted to make at The Cosmetics Company Outlet which happened to be just 3 or 4 stores down.

I’ve heard a lot of rumors about The Cosmetics Company Outlet, that it’s a great place to get high-end department store cosmetics at a discounted price. This is true. I found MAC Mineralize Skin Finishes for like $19.50 compared to the regular price of $27. They carried brands like Bobbi Brown, Clinique, and Estee Lauder–a lot of the products were either overstock or discontinues. I didn’t buy very much, just 3 MAC Pigments for $13.75 each (although I think one was $15.75 because it was a glitter): Copperbeam (which is a beautiful rich copper color), Reflects – Red Black (a dark wine color with glitter), and Melon (a shimmery melon color). I think I walked away with a decent stash though. I don’t know if I’ll come back during the holidays (I imagine it just gets really packed and crazy around that time) but I’m pretty sure I’ll come back again.

The only other shopping I plan on doing this week is the grocery store, then Michael’s and Bed Bath & Beyond on Friday. Anyone else doing major Black Friday shopping?

I’ve been making my cards every year for the past few years and along the way, I’ve picked up a few tips from other fellow card makers that can make the process a lot easier and less stressful for beginners.

Assembly Line
If you’re making more than 10 cards (and aren’t bursting with creativity and spare time), consider an assembly line. Design your cards ahead of time and, like in a restaurant kitchen, prep your “ingredients” ahead of time. Cut and score your cards. Find out how much ribbon each card will need and cut each piece. Stamp, and/or color your image on individual pieces all at once. Then once you have everything ready, start assembling. This can be a great activity for you and your kids (or in my case Jabari).

Buy In Bulk
It’s easy to go to a big box retailer like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby (or even to your local scrapbook store) and pick out a sheet of paper from one of their many paper racks. However, if you’re trying to make 30 cards and one sheet of 8.5 x 11″ paper is $.59, that’ll get expensive. To keep your costs down and save some of that money for holiday gift-giving, buy your paper in packs.

Stampin’ Up offers a rainbow array of paper packs at 24 sheets per pack. Current prices on the pack are $5.50 each which calculates to about $.02 per sheet if you disregard shipping and tax, but I’d check their website to make sure that’s correct. One benefit to using Stampin’ Up card stock that I haven’t seen with any other manufacturer is the ability to buy 1 color in a paper pack. This is great if you’re only making 1 design and need one color as your base card stock. On the other hand, if you’re great friends with your LSS (local scrapbook store), you can probably get him or her to place a special order for you of one or a handful of a particular color at a decent price.

Other manufacturers like American Crafts and Bazzill offer color multi packs. For example, you might receive 25 sheets of one color family (such as varying shades of green from light to dark) but you might only receive 5 sheets of each hue. This can actually work out fine if you plan ahead. For example, if you purchase a Bazzill trio pack (3 colors per pack) that contains 15 sheets of 8.5 x 11″, you could easily make 30 cards total, 6 each of 3 different designs.

Color-Challenged? Use The Right Tools (Or Visit The Right Websites)

Stampin' Up's Color Coach

Like in fashion, when it comes to assembling a card, your card stock, paper, and embellishments don’t necessarily have to match, they just have to “go together,” or in other words, coordinate with each other.

You don’t have to be an expert in color theory to accomplish this. Thankfully there are tools already available that can take the guesswork out of finding the right paper. Bazzill Matchmaker is a great online tool that can help you find Bazzill paper that coordinates with some of your favorite brands of paper such as Crate Paper, 7Gypsies, Basic Grey and more.

Scrapbook.com also released a great tool that allows you to find products by color and even makes coordinating suggestions.

Stampin Up’ has their Color Coach which is basically a color wheel of all of their permanent colors. It offers helpful suggestions for coordinating colors and complementary colors.

Value Packs = Mix & Match
If you want to embellish your cards with patterned paper, try to purchase sheets in value packs rather than per sheet. Value packs and multi-packs offer a variety of sheets of paper from the same collection at an affordable price.

Value patterned paper packs can vary in price from $10-$25 depending on where you purchase them, how much paper is in them, and whether or not they come with additional embellishments such as die cuts, stickers, and alphas. Manufacturers like American Crafts, Basic Grey, SEI, and Me & My Big Ideas offer holiday patterned paper at various retailers like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. If you go at the right time (like the day after Thanksgiving) you can often purchase these packs at huge discounts.

The added value of coordinating paper packs is you can often mix and match papers within one style of card. So in case you run out of one sheet, more than likely there’s another sheet in the same pack that can coordinate with your card design.

Put Down The Embossing Gun
Distressing and embossing, while beautiful, is a multi-step process and takes a lot more time an effort than simply cutting and adhering. If you’re a fan of the sanding block, you may decide to completely block out what I’m suggesting which is to severely limit the amount of distressing you do to your cards.

But let’s think about it. You have 50 cards to make and your design requires to not only emboss, but to also color and distress with a sanding block. That’s already 6 steps right there. But what if all you had to do was stamp the image, color it, and then perhaps ink the edges? That’s reduced the amount of steps to about half.

You might argue with me on this one, and ultimately you’re going to do what’s right for you, but if you have dozens of cards to make, you might want to consider this. After all, the point of these tips is to make your card making easier, not harder.

Anyway, hope you found this information helpful. What are your tips for making holiday cards easier and less stressful?