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A Year Between Friends | January Projects

Last Year I pre-ordered the book A Year Between Friends by Maria Alexandra Vettese & Stephanie Congdon Barnes (better known as 3191MilesApart) right away. It came in November and I loved it from page one. I flipped through the book and knew, it would be perfect for a year-long project in 2017 because each chapter is broken down into each month of the year.

For 2017 I didn't set any goals but I decided to work my way through that book. Each month I will do the projects, bake and cook the recipes and read the stories from that chapter. At the end of each month I will share my projects here on the blog and also make a 6x8" page for my personal Project Life® album. Today I share the January projects with you.

RECIPE // BUTTERMILK SCONES

The first recipe I tried from the book were the Buttermilk Scones. I baked them without the fruit filling and served them with butter and homemade jam. The recipe was easy to follow and it worked out like it should. They tasted okay and were a bit crumbly.  Maybe it was the buttermilk but I don't think I will do them again.

 

RECIPE // WARM IT UP TEA

This is more of a "combine these ingredients" than a real recipe. It's a tea with different flavours to make it a little bit more special than just an ordinary tea. I really enjoyed it and made it already several times. Because I couldn't find dried nettle around here I bought nettle tea (the one which is just ready to use in teabags) and used that. Love the spice and it definetely warms you up (but which tea doesn't?).

 

DIY PROJECT // SPOON OIL

You use spoon oil (a combination of oil and bees wax) to get your wooden supplies a new life. And wow I am SO surprised about how much better my wooden spoons and cutting boards look like now. The spoon oil really gives them a shiny look and brings out the beautiful wood.

I made the spoon oil on a Friday and let it cool overnight. I bought organic beeswax here (an online shop here in Switzerland) and my oil at our local grocery store.

In this before photo you can see how light and faded my cutting boards and spoons looked like. After I coated the wood with the oil I let it dry overnight again and the next day rubbed the excess oil away. I am so happy about how this project turned out.

 

RECIPE // GOOD LUCK FRITATA

This recipe was SO GOOD! So far I only made fritatas with potatoes but this one was so much better. I don't have a cast-iron skillet so I used just a regular skillet and turned it over to bake on both sides instead of broiling it in the oven. I guess it would have been so much easier to put it in the oven so I'm thinking about buying a cast-iron skillet in the near future. Really a great recipe that I will make over and over. And my boyfriend liked it as well.

 

WHAT I DIDN'T TRY

Wool Mending: Because I don't have anything to mend I didn't try that project.

 

6X8 PAGE FOR MY PERSONAL PROJECT LIFE® ALBUM
(It's written in German but basically I wrote what you can read in my blog post, just a little less)

LET'S TALK HASHTAGS

My favorite (and only) social media platform I use is Instagram. I love to upload photos there and connect with other people. I love the visual aspect of it and how inspiring it can be. Yes, sometimes it could also be a little bit overwhelming when you see an amazing feed with perfect photos. People who seem to be perfect. But we all know, that photos, we share online are just showing a small piece of our life. And most of the time the photo you see is a combination of making it look better than it actually is and adding a filter. But today I don't want to write about that part, I want to talk about hashtags.

Oh I love hashtags. Almost every photo that I share on Instagram gets a hashtag. I use hashtags in two different ways. 1) to showcase my photo under a general hashtag that other people also use and 2) to collect similar photos I took under a personal hashtag. The second one is my true passion. I love to see a collection of my photos that are part of the same theme. For example, when I share something I baked or cooked I use #andreaisinthekitchen.

I don't use a personal hashtag right away. But after a few times posting a similar photo I start using a new personal hashtag. Then I go back through my feed and search for all those photos that belong to that hashtag. The newest hashtag I created is #that🌳. I took a photo of the tree right in front of my window several times in the past 18months and now it was time to get a hashtag for them. Nowadays it's not that easy to find a hashtag that no one else is using. Before I start using a new one I always use the search tool to make sure it's not already taken. Here I tried many things but everything was taken. So I added an emoji. Most of the time it also helps to add your name or your initials to the hashtag.

I counted all my personal hashtags that I use and have now 33 hashtags. Some of them aren't in use anymore, some get updated very rarely but most of them are in heavy rotation. If you are curious, these are my personal hashtags:

Paper Projects
#GetToWork_Andrea
#projectlifeandrea
#olwandrea
#dayinandreaslife
#weekinandreaslife
#layoutsbyandrea
#DecemberDailyAndrea

Other Projects
#andreagrowsagarden
#whatandreaknits
#whatandreasews
#createshareloveblog
#write_onAndrea
#penpalsandrea

Stuff I love
#whatandreareads
#andreaisinthekitchen
#andreaisNOTinthekitchen
#workspaceandrea
#andrealovesfall
#andrealovesplants
#andreabuyslocally
#andreacollectsquotes
#andreathrifted
#that🌳

Hashtags in combination with other people
(af stands for the initials of me and my boyfriend, Ramona is my sister)
#afholidaytime
#afhike
#afnewhome
#afchristmastime
#andrearamonatravel
#andrearamonalondon
#andrearamonaflorence

Past Hashtags
#andreaandayearofcups
#andreaolyahabit
#artjournalbyandrea

 

I use general hashtags like #gettoworkbook, #craftthestory, #paisleepress,... whenever I use a product and want that you can find my photo under that hashtag. There are two different ways I use them:

1) right in my caption and 2) in the comments section.

The reason behind this is simple. The first option is when I want that you click from my photo through that hashtag. The second option is when it's not important that you click through, but I still want that when you are on that hashtag, you can see my photo.

Usually I dont use very abstract hashtags like #reading, #eating or #whatIwear. I don't really get it why I should use them because I never look through those hashtags, but I look through a hashtag like #thecraftersbox or #ayearbetweenfriends to find inspiration.

updated craft room

Back in Summer 2015, when we moved into our new home, my craft room was one of the first rooms that I set up. And it felt right for a very long time (aka, over a year). But last October I realized that I had to change something. I needed a room that inspires me to sit down and do something. To sew more. To spend more time in my room. The one thing that bothered me the most, was my main shelf. It was just so busy because there were too many things on it.

So I removed everything from that shelf and went through my stuff. Each piece that I didn't absolutely love and/or wanted to use, had to go. All of my memory keeping albums (Project Life®, Week in the Life™, December Daily® and minibooks) found their new place in our office downstairs. This made much more sense because I always had to go upstairs to bring them down when we wanted to look through our albums. I also got rid of a few white boxes.

And this is how it looks lik now. So much lighter. So much better. The rest of the room stayed the same (except that I now found a place for my dress form).

Resources (everything is from IKEA):

• Kitchen Island: this and this base cabinet, combined with this countertop
• Norden table as my sewing table
• Bernhard chair
• Ivar shelving
• two Alex carts

Memory Keeping in 2017

2017 is my fifth year documenting our life with Project Life®*. I already have six filled albums (in 2013 and 2014 I had two albums per year) and I always love to look back. A few days ago my boyfriend asked me how long I plan to do Project Life®. And to be honest, I don't know. Maybe three years, maybe five or ten years. No one knows. I just do it as long as I like to document our life in this way.

The plan for 2017 isn't different from what I did last year (although the actual plan for 2016 was different). I keep two albums in 2017 again:

Main Project Life® album
In this album I tell the story of our everday life. People we meet, stuff we do, things that are important to both of us.

• Album: black 12x12 album from Stampin'Up
• Page protectors: Design A + one 12x12 envelope for the back
• Format: monthly spreads (read more about my experience with monthly spreads here)

 

Personal Project Life® album
In this album I tell my own story. It's an album about my projects, books I read, important text messages/e-mails I get, what I eat and drink, basically stuff I share on my Instagram account.

• Album: gray 6x8 album from Studio Calico
• Page protectors: I will use all five different styles that are available
• Format: monthly spreads but the focus is on the projects itself. I will combine the same/similar stuff that happens throughout the month.

 

Like in the past two years I also keep a Stories Notebook where I write down what happens during the month. I need that because I only work once a month on my album and would otherwise forget a few things that happened.

 

*Project Life® is a system to document your life, created by Becky Higgins.

Related posts
Basic Supply List / Experience with weekly spreads / How to create a simple title page

P.S. Here were my plans for 2015 and for 2016.

 

December Daily® 2016 - PART FOUR

You are probably not interested anymore in Christmas related stuff (at least, I am not), but today I share the last part of my December Daily® album. As I mentioned, I documented the whole December, not just until December 25. Alright, here we go:

For my text on Day 24 I used a filler card and added a piece of white paper in the middle. This way I can use those patterned paper filler cards and my text at the same time.

I didn't had a story for day 29. So I just took a photo of our door, where I put up all Christmas cards we received.

Because I don't keep all of the cards anymore, I took a photo of them to add to my album.

And for my very last page I cut up two cards we received.

 

You can find my other December Daily® 2016 posts here: title page and part one // part two // part three

*December Daily® is a project created by Ali Edwards. You can read more about it on her site.