The Splendidly Imperfect Miss M!: Project Life Update

Third trimester must be approaching because my energy is starting to wane again. BOO! This baby is putting pressure on my lungs so I find that even the bare minimum of physical activity (um, taking a shower?!?!?!???) leaves me short of breath and with a racing heart... kinda like I actually exercised. I talked to the LPN (my doctor was out) when I went in for my monthly visit and she said that this is a perfectly normal symptom of pregnancy, and may just be a bit more pronounced due to my advanced age.

I've decided I don't particularly care for the LPN.

Due to said lack of wanting to do anything, really, I'm still woefully behind on my Project Life pages. I was coming close to being caught up and then slacked off again. I did just finish the pages from two weeks ago, so there's that.

I've been dreaming of pretty colored and patterned washi tapes lately. Since I said no unnecessary spending for Lent, I haven't bought any. I see such cute pages made with these little scraps of bright tape though, and I want to make some too! Then I realized - I may not have washi tape, but you know what I do have a shitload of?

Heidi Swapp tape. It's in a Ziploc because I was actually going to give it away, but then I figured, what the heck? I may as well try to get some use from it. I am in awe of how shoddy this product is. Part of the pattern for the next roll is usually on there. They're not cut straight at all. A lot of them seem to have hesitation marks from cutting, like the machine got stuck and someone was trying to go back and forth to force it through. Luckily this was given to me and I didn't spend my money on it. I wonder if the stuff she's releasing these days is still as plagued with problems as it was when she first started her own line? Remember the chipboard alphabets with the dried up adhesive?

Here's my left page. I found the felt letter stickers at Michael's. It was a bag of 100 that was part of their Creatology line for only two dollars! They're really nice quality too. I wish they had more colors. My clothesline finally got put up that week. The clothespin journaling card was found on Pinterest and came from here.

I did my own baby size/food comparison:

This is why I'm a fat kid, y'all.

There's a little blurb about finally finding a pint of Schweddy Balls (heh) flavored ice cream. I included a little something for Leap Day (tell me you watched that episode of 30 Rock!) and some of my tweets for the week. I mentioned Bubba's sleep issues (journaling card found here) and his new found love of Diego.

I just did a Google image search for Diego and then messed with it in Photoshop to get it the right size and to add journaling.

On the right side, I have a cute little quote I found on Pinterest. I shared some things I made that week, as well at how I'm trying to prevent charley horses this pregnancy. The big thing we did that week was to go to a street festival and vintage car show, so there are lots of photos of old cars on this page. I got all fancy and made it look like they were on old scrapbook pages in Photoshop. I used some of the journaling cards that I designed on this page as well as one that I found on Pinterest (found here) for the Friday card. You can find links for those on my Pinterest board for Project Life.

Oh! And what's that on which my pages are resting?

I finally got my Olivetti back from the shop! I just love this typewriter. It's a whole heck of a lot smaller and lighter than the Royal, for starters. The typeface (I was gently corrected when I referred to it as the font, heh) is just lovely. It's smaller than the type on the Royal, and a bit more contemporary in style. If you click on one of the photos of my pages to enlarge it, you'll see what I mean. It's also a lot more quiet than the so-called "Quiet de Luxe." I still love my Royal, for it's gorgeous classic charm, but man, I REALLY love this Olivetti.

I found it at an antique mall a while back. It didn't work at all, due to the carriage being totally locked up. The man at the repair shop said it looked like it may have been dropped. I paid five bucks for it because I thought it was pretty and would look nice in my scraproom for display. A few weeks ago I decided I'd take it in to the repair shop Busy Bee Lauren recommended to see if it could be fixed, and how much that would cost. I was quoted $60 for the repair, and after discussing it with my husband, we decided to go for it. I mean, how awesome would it be to have a typewriter for my Project Life stuff?

After I took it in, I decided to Google it. The Olivetti Lettera 22 was designed in 1949, which I take to mean it was sold in the earliest part of the 1950's. I found the original advertisement for it online.

According to this, the typewriter cost $88 new sixty-two years ago. I paid $5, plus $59.95 for the repair (including new ribbon!) so I'm going to say I came out WAY ahead on this. Hooray for antiquing!

If you live in my area, I highly recommend Mesa Typewriter Exchange. Bill does good work! He must be a lot busier these days, because there are a LOT more typewriters in there than you see in this video.

Oh, and just for fun, let's tie up two random things from this post into one link: hahahaha! Google RULES.

Finally, I leave you with the good news that my Project Life pages have finally been freed from their plastic Generations by Hazel envelope and given a proper home. Last weekend a quick browse through Hobby Lobby's clearance section scored me one of my favorite American Crafts 3 ring binders in the most perfect shade of green for a mere $11.88. SCORE.