label love

I first met a label maker when I worked at a preschool. We casually made eye contact, but we both knew that something life changing was about to happen. As I reached over to touch those rubber buttons and heard the sound as the laminated tape was expelled, complete with crisp black lettering and sticky backing, oooohhh.

One of the most exciting days of my life was when the school’s Director asked me to help organize the front office. I went LABEL CRAZY. To my heart’s content almost 8 years later those labels and Ikea boxes are still in place. As perfect and label-ey as the day I lovingly applied them.

In an attempt to (somewhat) keep order in my apartment despite an overflow of toys, it was time to get my label on.

I found these paper tags at Staples, made by Martha, of course. If you find them tempting, you may not want to go check out the rest of her line of products as it left a wee bit of a dent in my wallet.

I had these tags up for a few weeks and posted a picture on Instagram. A friend commented that her son would rip them off in about 2 seconds. Although Lucy has been extremely respectful, I decided to put my handy dandy laminator to use and reinforce the labels.

And here’s what it looked like…

I wish the pictures were a little snazzier, but my DSLR was on the fritz, so I used my phone. C’est la vie, this blog is a work in progress like so many parts of my life.

What do you like to slap labels on? Show me your pictures on Instagram, Flickr, Facebook or Twitter! (I’m beckycat1 everywhere – yeah, I’m #1).

xo Becky

check in

So it’s been 4 months since my birthday and I set a LOT of goals to accomplish. I’m feeling a bit behind, mostly because I’m not sure that will be able to pull it all off. But if I can’t, so what? I made up the game for myself so I can make the rules, too. The first rule of Birthday Goal Club – don’t dwell on Birthday Goal Club.

I have managed to knock a few of these out, so here’s a progress report:

1. Take a class with Lulu

Lucy and I took a dance class together. Besides being at 8AM on a Saturday, it was AWESOME! I plan on signing up for more but am taking a little break as I concentrate on my own courses that I am taking.

4. Take more breaks at work

This has been hard and maybe I’m cheating again by putting it on my “done” list as it is very much a work in progress. Something that has been a big help has been my engagement in work outside of “work.” The classes that I am taking make me excited to sneak a peek at Flickr or go outside to search for something to photograph.

10. Get shellac

I promptly got shellac right after I wrote this list, courtesy of my BFF. It was amazing, just like I knew it would be! It lasted for over two weeks – the picture below was taken after 14 days! The only reason I ended up taking it off was because I was itching for a new color.

13. Take Lulu to the beach

Some of our family just moved to Soquel, so we were able to spend Easter in Capitola and take Lucy to the beach for the first time. Part of me felt like an idiot for living where I do and going almost 2 years without visiting the beach with my daughter, but quickly forgave myself when we got there. She loved it, of course, and yelled “sandbox!” over and over again for days after we had left.

22. Take an art class

Although it’s technically a not photography course, Unraveling: Ways of Seeing Myself is focused on using photographs as a tool for self discovery. This class has reinvigorated my creative spirit and connected me to my camera in a brand new way.

28. Spend more than $30 on a pair of shoes

One of my Unraveling assignments was all about feet - where you are, where you’ve been, where you’re going. In addition to inspiring thought and creativity, it also inspired me to go and buy two very nice pairs of shoes for myself!

31. Take a picture of myself that I like.

I thought this one would be a giant challenge. Luckily a few recent assignments forced me to take some of my very first self portraits EVER and, dare I say, I like a few??

There’s still a lot of work to be done, and like I said before, I may not finish it all, and that’s ok. It’s actually better than ok because I’m accepting it without feeling bad. I work hard – at home, in my life and in my career. I TRY hard – to be a good mom, wife, friend and person. I put my heart into everything I do and all the people I do it with and that is certainly nothing to feel bad about.

xo Becky