{"id":2150,"date":"2020-09-02T14:20:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T22:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:20:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T22:20:20","slug":"losing-my-mojo-and-finding-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?p=2150","title":{"rendered":"Losing My Mojo&#8230;and Finding it Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>2020 has been anything but normal.  Between the pandemic, civil unrest, injuries, losses, and the ups and downs of having a toddler, there have been many many challenges to contend with.  And somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost my scrapbooking mojo.  I managed to complete February and March in my monthly project life&#8230; and then&#8230;nothing.  I took pictures and wrote most of the words for Week in the Life, but it felt like a chore.  Our life has felt like Groundhog Day for months, and I just couldn&#8217;t find the motivation to tell stories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200214_130655-450x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2151\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200214_130655-450x600.jpg 450w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200214_130655-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200214_130655-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200303_154112-450x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2152\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200303_154112-450x600.jpg 450w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200303_154112-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200303_154112-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I was not stagnant.  At least not for long.  I learned how to sew so that I could make masks for my family and friends.  Then, I thought, if I could learn to sew masks, I could sew curtains, and placemats, and soon I&#8217;m going to start my first quilt.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200830_133358-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2155\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200830_133358-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200830_133358-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200830_133358-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I started a watercolor subscription with Let&#8217;s Make Art, and have found joy and calm in painting.  I have started branching out into more detailed tutorials with Anna Mason&#8217;s online school, and even tried my hand at original paintings based on flowers we see on our daily walks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery alignwide columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"440\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200810_134714-600x440.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2157\" data-link=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?attachment_id=2157\" class=\"wp-image-2157\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200810_134714-600x440.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200810_134714-300x220.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200810_134714-768x563.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200814_223414-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2158\" data-link=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?attachment_id=2158\" class=\"wp-image-2158\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200814_223414-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200814_223414-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200814_223414-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200824_205205-2-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2165\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200824_205205-2-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200824_205205-2-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200824_205205-2-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, my friend Ingunn, a fellow scrapbooker, told me about how she decided to make a dedicated &#8220;pandemic summer&#8221; album, just dedicated to the awesome things she and her family were doing locally.  This spoke to me in a way that project life had not.  I wanted to tell the stories of our hikes and small adventures like Henry&#8217;s first camping trip.  I didn&#8217;t want to put a lot of pressure on myself to make a perfect album, and I wanted something that felt do-able and reasonably easy and quick.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found some layered templates designed by Liz Tamanaha over at <a href=\"https:\/\/paisleepress.com\/\">Paislee Press<\/a> which fit perfectly into a <a href=\"https:\/\/citrustwistkits.com\/\">Citrus Twist Life Crafted <\/a>album and just started plunking in pictures and short journaling.   I added simple embellishments from Ali Edwards&#8217; Roam kit.  The final outcome is clean and simple, and I&#8217;m really happy with how it looks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery alignwide columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091526-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2160\" data-link=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?attachment_id=2160\" class=\"wp-image-2160\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091526-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091526-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091526-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery alignwide columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091621-1-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2163\" data-link=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?attachment_id=2163\" class=\"wp-image-2163\" srcset=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091621-1-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091621-1-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_20200902_091621-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The best part about working on this album, is it has gotten me excited to tell stories again. Just today I uploaded photos from May and June to be printed at Costco!  I&#8217;m hoping my project life slump is coming to an end and I&#8217;ll be able to share some of the new layouts soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 has been anything but normal. Between the pandemic, civil unrest, injuries, losses, and the ups and downs of having a toddler, there have been&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/?p=2150\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Losing My Mojo&#8230;and Finding it Again<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amyalphin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}