Smashbook update #1

Back in January I posted about a christmas present I received; a Smashbook (Pink edition). I have done a couple of youtube videos on it but I haven't really blogged about it until today... So here's an overview of the pages I've completed so far.

First page

So, my first double page spread is dedicated to me and my boyfriend. We've been together for nearly 3 years so I wanted something nice to document our relationship a little bit!

I didn't go overboard with the photos, preferring to put in things like the dried roses that he bought me for our anniversary last year and a love note he sent me ages ago. The song lyrics are my favourite song that reminds me of him. In the bottom right hand corner is the bracelet that I made him but fell off due to wear - that is the essence of Smashbooking to me. It doesn't just have to be photos and words!

Second page

You may recognise this page and the previous page if you've watched my youtube channel as they were featured in my videos briefly. Originally this was going to be a page just for ticket stubs to concerts and theatre events I've been to, but it soon turned into a page for tickets of all kinds. I kind of like the busy feel to the page!

Third page

It's probably no secret that I've been to Amsterdam twice, and that I love the city. This page is mainly tickets and stubs from my last trip there but does feature some bits from my first trip... It's more easy to see on the flick through video I did a while back because there's lots of hidden goodies on this page underneath tickets.

Fourth page

Way back in 1998, my parents bought me and my sister a kitten each. My cat was promptly named Snowball and my sister's was named Poppet 'because she looked really sweet'. Turns out the cat was a nutcase. A lovely, friendly, gentle nutter. Unfortunately our little crazy kitty passed away last October at the age of 14.5 years (but not before making a 75 mile trip to Telford, after she got herself inside a van travelling that way just before it left. I'm not making that up.) 

'One must love a cat on it's own terms'. That we did. 

Fifth page

The Color Run is an American 5k run that's recently been brought over to the UK. I've wanted to run in this race since I first heard about it a few years ago - and when I heard they were going to be holding one in the UK, I just had to be in it! Me and my Dad ran together. It was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to go again (and hopefully get more colored!). To be honest, I don't really like this page. It's not bright enough. I think eventually I will attack it with some paint of my own and make it really colourful!

Sixth page

I graduated! Yay! I'm very proud of this page. It took a lot longer than most people who I went to school with but I did it :) Not much else to say about this really - I just like basking in the glow of my achievement!

Seventh page

This is another set that you may have seen before if you've watched my youtube videos. This one focuses on my hobbies and activities that I love to do. The smash book is all about me so having a page devoted to things I love to do was a must! I wish I had more room on this page as there's so much I could've included. 

If you want to hear me talk about these pages a little more in depth, then check out this video:

How do you use your smashbook? Is it more of a scrapbook style or is it 'anything and everything'? I've seen some fantastic examples of both. Do you use something unconventional to smash into? 

Blog planning sheets

Now that I've got time to blog again, I've got a lot of ideas for upcoming blog posts that I want to write and post. I started writing titles down in my diary - but this doesn't give much scope for long titles, changes and a general record of when things have been written and are ready to go. So I grabbed an old to-do list and made my own blog post record sheet!

So what's going on on this insert? Well, it's slightly customised as you can see. Here's a closer view:

The first row is the title of the blog post and any specifics I need to put in (for instance, the name of the polish I'm featuring). The second row, split into three sections, is the most important - on the left I have a check box for whether or not I've written the post yet (W), then a box for whether or not I've photographed the things I need for the post (Ph) and finally, the date that I'm going to post the piece on. Some of them have dates but some of them have 'queue' written in this box - these are my back up, 'Oh man, I haven't got time to blog today!' throw away posts that are a bit generic and I can just log on and post it without having to worry about what I'm writing when I'm short of time. The two different colours represent my two different blogs; my nail and beauty blog is in pink and this blog is in blue. This helps me keep track of how many posts I've written for each one and when I posted them so that I don't post too much on one and not enough on the other.

By knowing what I want to write I can be sure that I won't have writers block and when I've got a spare evening, I can sit down and work on one of my posts! Win! The only problem is... this was my last sheet of 'to do' lists so I'm going to have to figure out whether I want to buy a new pack (hopefully in cotton cream does anyone know if they do them?) and customise them myself again or if I want to try and make my own up. Decisions, decisions...

Does anyone else plan their blog posts? How do you do it?