Laura Mae Creates

365 Photos - Infodesign Project

2012-01-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

I posted this post A Photo A Day in September of 2010, 9 months into my 365 Challenge where I was going to take a photo a day for an entire year. I am happy to say I succeeded & more!! Not only did I take a photo every day for the year 2010, I also made it my infodesign project for Catharine's Communication of Design class at LCAD.

This project really made me fall in love with the struggle of infographs & infodesign, which is also called Information Design. The project seemed right up my alley, organizing data & then making it look pretty?! Oh I'm so on that! I took all 365 photos & collected mounds of data from each photo.

Here are some images of it when it was up in the gallery at my school:

The lid is resting on the desk and the box is pinned flat on the wall with the photos hanging next to it.

Flat view of the box.

This was the time graph, lots and lots of data here.

This was at LCAD's "Best of Best" Juried Exhibition

After taking a years worth of photos, I decided to take on an enormous project in my Communication of Design 1 class at LCAD. The project was Infographs, something I have grown to love! I took every single photo and collected data from each, such as date, time, city, state, people in it, categories etc. After that huge portion of the project was done I made 4 main graphs, Time, Places, Categories and People.

Categories: I categorized each photo, ex: Baking, Celebrations, Vacation, Craftiness, Ruckus etc.

People: This one shows all the different people and relations of how I know them through other people.

Time: All the different times a photo was taken for each day

Places: All the different locations a photo was shot

I created the infographs then put them all together in a huge exploding box, with a centerpiece mosaic of all 365 photos in the center. Then I took 12 of the most important/memorable photos, one for each month, printed them out and put their stories on the backs.

Huge project and it all came down to this:

I got an A =)

Senior Portfolio 1 Final Critique

2012-01-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

Dana and 2 of 5 of our guests at the critique

Talking about my brand

Typical laura mae, talking with her hands

Getting ready to show my stop-motion piece on the iPad

New Apron!

2011-12-22T14:20:00.001-08:00

My favorite teacher at LCAD, Dana Herkelrath, shared my passion for baking with some of her friends and the next thing you know I have a shopping bag full of goodies!! In the bag were these funky tall cupcake tins with liners to go in them, a cake lifter (sooo needed this!!), and this lovely apron!
I'm so in love. I have seen this apron at Heavenly Hostess or Paper Source many times, not just this one but the same style and love them so much but they are a little too pricy for me. Especially since I actually use my aprons and they get baking loveliness all over them the second they are used. Now I have one of my own and it is so perfect for me! Yay!
Thank you so much Dana for thinking of me and to your friends who helped supply these goodies for me!

Fiskars Trimmer Product Review

2011-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

The process of retiring a trimmer...

So first of all I have to say, I love my all Creative Memories tools, my trimmer especially. This was the first trimmer I ever owned and I bought it when I was 14 with my own money so proud and special! But anyways that aside, I love it so this was a really hard decision for me to finally retire it. It has gone through its wear and tear and had its love and now I have moved on to Fiskars and I can tell you I do not regret my decision at all.

I was very nervous to not get another CM trimmer but they have discontinued this one that I love so much and I wasn't about to try the new one they came out with. So I dug into research, went to all the local craft stores and finally decided on this Fiskars trimmer.

The two are very similar. Both have the pull out measuring bar and the lift bar is similar but there are things I love about the Fiskars that CM didn't have. I love the measuring surface for one. It is flat and smooth and has tons of marks on it to help guide you. Also the blade and blade holder is a lot better and doesn't stick or pop out often like CM's.

Lastly it came with a Scoring Blade, that I absolutely love! It is so much easier to make accordion folded things like the 4th of July wreath that I made.

101 Christmas Stocking Stuffers & Christmas Gift Ideas

2011-12-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas is around the corner. Here is a list I compiled of 101 Stocking Stuffer and small Christmas Gift Ideas to help you brainstorm what to get your family and friends this holiday!

Barbies 
Bath toys 
Batteries 
Beanie 
Belt 
Binoculars 
Birthstone Jewelry  
Body wash  or Bubbles
Book
Bookmarks 
Camera strap cover 
CD 
Cell phone car charger 
Chalk 
Chapstick 
Christmas ornament 
Clip on book reading lamp 
Coasters
Coffee cup 
Coloring Book 
Cookie cutters 
Crayons  or Markers
Crosswords puzzle book 
Cufflinks 
Cuticle set 
Day Calendar
Deck of playing cards 
Decorative cupcake liners
DVD
Earbuds 
Fishing lures 
Flashlights 
Flower bulbs 
Fridge magnets 
From the Kitchen of labels
Garden markers (for herbs etc) 
Gardening gloves 
Gift cards  
Golf tees or balls 
Hair bands + clips
Hand sanitizer
Harmonica
iPhone Case 
Jewelry box 
Key chain 
Knitting or Crochet needles 
Lint roller 
Loofa 
Lotion 
Lottery tickets 
Luggage tags 
Magazine 
Makeup bag  or brush set
Matchbox cars 
Measuring spoons or cups 
Memory card 
Mini tripod 
Mittens 
Money clip 
Nail polishes 
Packets of flower or herb seeds for planting 
Paint set 
Passport holder 
Pedometer 
Perfume/Cologne 
Photo frames 
Piggy Bank
PJ's 
Play Dough 
Pumice stones 
Purse Mirror
Raw honey sticks 
Recipe cards 
Retractable ID or key holder 
Ring holder 
Rubix cube 
Scarf  
Scented candles
Scrapbooking supplies
See's Chocolate 
Sharpies
Silly Bandz 
Silly putty 
Sketchbook 
Speciality coffee, cocoa + teas
Stationery 
Stickers 
Swiss Army knife 
Tools 
Travel alarm clock 
Travel sized games (connect four, uno, etc) 
Umbrella 
Universal remote 
USB Drive 
Wallet 
Wash/Dish rags 
Watch 
Water Bottle
Wii controllers 
Wine glass charms or stopper 
Wooden spoons

Wreaths

2011-12-01T14:43:00.001-08:00

I am going to be making some wreaths this year for sure for Christmas! I have found a ton of inspiration over on Pinterest.

This is a wreath I made for the 4th of July this year :

via

These are wreaths that I found on Pinterest that I am going to draw inspiration from. Some of them are 4th of July inspired because the boyfriends mother is the biggest fan of red, white, + blue that I know.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Occupy Wall Street (#occupywallstreet)

2011-11-17T20:45:00.001-08:00

Get Naked and Start a Revolution #occupywallstreet

Last week in my Senior Port class we had a design charette with our new Typography teacher and our two teachers team taught us a project that we started and had finished and printed by the end of class.

We had time to:

Research:
Occupy Wall Street
Find our opinion on the topic

First Draft:
Type only poster
1 color
1 typeface
No extra elements are allowed to be added

Phase 1

Critique:

Revise of Phase 1:
Second color added
Second typeface added

Second Critique:

Finalize artwork and send to print
Printed 18x24
Mounted on posterboard
Hung on wall in gallery at school

My quote was:
"Lets Get Naked and Start a Revolution" which came from a good friend Matt, something he used to say many years ago.

My New Western Digital 3TB Harddrive for $109!!!

2011-11-10T23:31:00.001-08:00

You gotta love Costco! Especially when they have something you want and then it goes on sale and you have a coupon for it! That was our case for our new 3TB harddrives!

That's right I said it. Not one or two TB but 3 lovely terabytes! Do you know how much stuff I can put on there? It is freaking amazing. And on top of it it was only $109, originally $129 but with a $20 off coupon. So cheap!

Seriously such a good deal we bought 2! Haha do now we have 6TB of Harddrive space to play with. Awesome.

The harddrives are Western Digital whom I also love. I currently have a 1TB portable My Passport right now and have been using that for pretty much my whole career at LCAD. No issues up until recently with it when the cord started coming loose and ejecting the Harddrive on its own. Easy fix though and I have to say Western Digital was awesome! They sent me a new cord for free ASAP with no questions asked.

I am one happy camper and can rest better knowing all of my life will be backed up when I wake up tomorrow.

Laura Mae says, Hold On.

2011-11-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

In the words of my best friend from middle school through high school:

"Life's tough. Wear a helmet."

- Cass

Recently life has been incredibly tough. Which has surprisingly given me inspiration to create this poster from a quote that I found a while back (Author Unknown).

CMYK Banner in my Senior Studio Space

2011-11-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

We finally got our senior spaces at LCAD. Now mind you don't go thinking they are the most luxurious things in the world but I am glad that we get them. It really is so nice to just be able to walk over and finish working after a class instead of driving all the way home and by the time I get home and through talking with whoever is there and to my room to work, I'm so tired and wiped out I don't get anything done. So now I am way more productive that we have the studio spaces and the fact that sometimes other kids are there with me helps so I can get advice, etc. on projects.

The studio space isn't the prettiest thing in the world and this was my 1st step to decorating it up a bit, well my space at least. I made this CMYK banner, (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key Black), to hang above my computer space.

Layered CMYK pieces of paper cut into the shape of ribbons with an accordion fold circle in the center of each and a Kraft cardstock on top of that.

This is my sad little space. It is very much used and will be decorated much more in due time.

Candy Fun

2011-11-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Seeing how Halloween just passed it makes sense to finally post this Fathers Day present I made for my dad this year haha. (You can tell school has kept me busy I haven't had any time to post this!)

But I guess this would be a good idea for left over Halloween candy?!

Basically we just went to the market with a notepad and stood in front of the candy section for about an hour while we made up the whole story, it was pretty fun actually!

*Please excuse the grammar since we were using candy bars as words hehe.

"For Father's day we went shopping and Nick said {Look!} A {Whatchamacallit} but it was {100 Grand} and it wasn't {Pay Day} yet. So we decided to {Take 5} and think some more. "{U-No} what would be a totally {Turtles} idea?" said our friends {Mike and Ike}, "A shopping {Spree} to {5th Avenue} in New..."

"...{York}!" We just {Snickers} at the crazy {Cow Tales} these kids were telling. "I think dad would ratheer take a {Starburst} trip to the {Milky Way} than go back to the east coast again," we told them. Instead we picked up some me{Mentos} but unfortunately Nick was driving so it made for a bit of a {Rocky Road}..."

"...and slipped through Laura's {Butterfinger}s with a {Crunch}! We {Dove} into our hearts and came up with an {Extra} special gift for you! A day full of {Mounds} of joy, all because..."

"...our {Pop Rocks}! We love you, Happy Fathers Day. Love your favorite {Airheads}. Nick and Laura Mae."

Here is the whole message put together:

For Father's day we went shopping and Nick said {Look!} A {Whatchamacallit} but it was {100 Grand} and it wasn't {Pay Day} yet. So we decided to {Take 5} and think some more. "{U-No} what would be a totally {Turtles} idea?" said our friends {Mike and Ike}, "A shopping {Spree} to {5th Avenue} in New {York}!" We just {Snickers} at the crazy {Cow Tales} these kids were telling. "I think dad would ratheer take a {Starburst} trip to the {Milky Way} than go back to the east coast again," we told them. Instead we picked up some me{Mentos} but unfortunately Nick was driving so it made for a bit of a {Rocky Road} and slipped through Laura's {Butterfinger}s with a {Crunch}! We {Dove} into our hearts and came up with an {Extra} special gift for you! A day full of {Mounds} of joy, all because our {Pop Rocks}! We love you, Happy Fathers Day. Love your favorite {Airheads}. Nick and Laura Mae.

Dad was very thrilled to open this gift, he thought it was so clever! Then instantly had to mention that I must take after him hehe. I love my dad!

Free Social Networking Icons

2011-10-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on designing my website www.laurafindley.com right now at school and one of my tasks was to find some good social networking icons to use. There are tons of beautifully designed icons out there but I was looking for plain and simple.

From my findings I made a collection of the social networking icons and have put them up for a free download. Each has at from 3-6 different sizes including 16px, 24px, and 32px. The list of the icons included in this free download are below.

Free Social Networking Icons

Free social networking icons

Social Networking Icons Included are: (use your "Find" command to help find an icon you are looking for. To do this go to your browsers Edit menu and mouse down to "Find".)

Add This, Amazon, AOL, App Store, Apple, Bebo, Behance, Bing, Blank Color Buttons, Blip, Blogger, Bright Kite, Coroflot, Daytum, Delicious, Design Bump, Design Float, Deviant Art, Digg, Dopplr, Dribble, drupal, Ebay, Email, Ember, Evernote, Facebook, Feedburner, Flickr, Forrst, Foursquare, Friendfeed, Friendster, Gdgt, Git Hub, Google, Google Buzz, Google Talk, Google+ 1 Files, Google+ 2 Files, Gowalla, Heart, Hyves, Icon Dock, ICQ, Identi, Instagram, iTunes, Last FM, Linked In, Meet Up, Metacafe, Microsoft, Mister Wong, Mixx, Mobile Me, MSN, MySpace, NetVibes, Newsvine, PayPal, Photo Bucket, Picasa, Pinterest, Podcast, Posterous, Qik, Reddit, Retweet, RSS, Scribd, Share This, Skype, Slash Dot, Slide Share, Smug Mug, Sound Cloud, Spotify, Squidoo, Star, Stumble Upon, Technorati, Tumblr, Twitter, Viddler, Vimeo, Virb, w3, Wikepedia, Wordpress, Xing, Yahoo, Yahoo Buzz, Yelp, and YouTube.

Steve Jobs, Rest in Peace

2011-10-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

I just have to say that yesterday seeing this on Apple's website honestly made me cry. The design is so simple and they used such a stunning photo of Steve Jobs everything about it is so bold and heartfelt.

As most of you know I am a hardcore Mac lover and always have been, I've converted all my close friends and family to Mac lovers as well, many of you are reading this right now and laughing. I appreciate what Apple has brought to this world so much and know that they will continue to do great things even without this extraordinary man.

RIP Steve Jobs, you have accomplished many wonderful things.

Holiday Cards

2011-10-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Last year I was on a roll and handmade 50 Christmas cards! If you are on our Christmas card list you just may recognize a card below!

My inspiration came from Kristina Werner and her beautiful Holiday Card Series! She has just started it up again this year and we will see if I can make as many as I did last year with all the school and work projects I have going on as well. Wish me luck and I hope you join in on the fun!

Wall Heart

2011-09-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Andy opening his gifts, he was super excited about the canvas piece!

On top of the Mini Cake I made for Andy and I for our One Year Anniversary, I also made him a huge 36x36 canvas photo collage of 45 photos from the year. This was a more difficult task then I planned. Since it was so big I had to cover it with a sheet because it was too difficult to wrap. He had no idea and was thrilled when he opened it.

I also printed over 100 more of these types of photos because I'm going to make the same type of thing on my wall in my room, only way bigger and without the canvas! (hint hint a blog about this to come soon!)

Here is my process:

After I picked my photos, I pulled them all into Photoshop and made a polaroid out of them. Because I knew that I was going to be printing on a 4x6 size, I put all the polaroids onto a black background in PS so I could print them at the 4x6 price instead of a custom price for a custom size.

Once I cut off the extra black background all my photos were polaroid size

I bought a 36x36" canvas and painted it black with acrylic paint. I then laid out my photos into the shape of a heart. To adhere them I used a spray mount adhesive and rubbed them onto the canvas with a microfiber cloth.

The finished piece.

Anniversary Treats

2011-09-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my anniversary posts. The gifts!

Andy, being as wonderful as always, reserved us a Gondola ride in Newport Beach as well as making me a Fireman Build a Bear that says "I Love You" for our anniversary. He actually made the gift certificate for the gondola ride which was totally cute and included a framed photo of us on a boat to go along with the theme.

The day after we got back from Yosemite he had the most beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my house so I could enjoy them for the rest of the week while we were home. Smart man! I love him.

Now for my gifts to him.
I wanted to bake something because thats just what I do, but we were leaving for the trip and I didn't want to bake something crazy that we couldn't take with us or that would be to hard to transport/eat later. So I was up in the air about this one. I decided to bake a cake, a tiny cake - for Two!

Two cupcakes stacked on top of each other and covered in frosting!

I found a recipe that makes just 2 cupcakes. Super dangerous right?! With a little bit of a Laura tweak to it, 2 cute little cupcakes were made and decorated. For the red hearts I just melted red chocolate and piped out heart shapes onto foil to harden.

The recipe is below for you to download, print or share!

Open publication

One Year Anniversary Trip

2011-09-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Andy and I have officially been together for a year! Our Anniversary was August 14th. We celebrated by going on a trip to Yosemite with a stop in Ojai, CA on the way up.

Our actual anniversary was on a Sunday, the first day of our trip. So we stayed the night in the most beautiful little hotel in Ojai, CA called Chantico Inn & Suites. Our room was beautiful and pretty cheap for what we got, plus there was just one other couple staying at the hotel that night so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

We went to the most wonderful dinner at Suzanne's Cuisine where we were greeted with Happy Anniversary the wonderful service continued all the way till we were walking out the door. The food was absolutely wonderful and made us want to come back the next day for more! But off to Yosemite we went instead. =)

Ojai, CA

Left to Right: Jacuzzi Tub in room // Bed + Den, Suzanne's Cuisine Menu // View from our table at dinner // Crab and Corn cake with lemon cream sauce // Grilled vegetable salad with warm herb goat cheese // Our anniversary dessert from the restaurant // Back at the hotel our celebration dessert and strawberry puree + champgne // The happy couple!

Since Yosemite is always so crowded and campgrounds have rules and regulations about everything, plus the only shower is at the valley floor, we decided to stay in Oakhurst at the High Sierra RV Park & Campground which was only about 20 minutes from the South Yosemite entrance.

The campground wasn't at all what we expected, it is in the town Oakhurst so its a little weird to have your neighbors be a factory of some sort that had huge loud trucks and outside lights that stayed on 24/7. But it was a campground and there were free showers, Wi-fi (which we didn't use) and the staff was really friendly and understanding.

There wasn't much shade at all in the tent site row, so one morning when we woke up around 7am sweating like crazy because it was already 90 degrees outside, we decided we wanted to try to move under a tree. The only tree spot was occupied though, so the second those people left, we asked if we could move and enjoyed the rest of the mornings very comfortably.

We went into Yosemite for 2 full days, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday we stayed in Oakhurst to explore, which wasn't much. By the way, in the whole town of Oakhurst...there isn't a single ice cream store! When its 100+ degrees outside that is a terrible thing.

We loved all of Yosemite and made it through the week without any casualties, just bug bites. We took the 41 all the way to the 101 on the way home to stop at Split Pea Andersens, Andy had never been. It was super delicious and the perfect end to our wonderful trip!

Yosemite National Park, CA

Left to Right: Campsite // Tunnel View // Andy loving his sun hat and "jorts" // Bridalveil Falls // Posing with the sign // El Capitan // Hiking up to Lower Yosemite Falls // Lower Yosemite Falls // The river behind our campsite // Oakhurst Sign // Glacier Point // The only girl in heels and a dress at Glacier Point // Together // Olmstead Point // Sunset at Tuolumne Meadows // Tuolumne Meadows // "Hap-Pea" at Andersens // "Pea-Wee" at Andersens

Firework Cookies

2011-07-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

Laura Mae's Firework Cookies

They aren't quite as pretty as Martha's but they sure were delicious and a total hit at our 4th of July Party this year. Here is the easy How To.

Tips:

1. Make these when its not blazing hot outside!!

I made these with my 10 year old neighbor sister and we had quite the hard time with the frosting because it was so hot out it was just melting everywhere and instead of pretty white floods of icing, we got goopy piles of mess.

2. Use cool cookies

This is always a very important step in baking, making sure your cookies are cool before you decorate. But this time it is vital because of the meringue frosting you are using, it won't set up right if the cookies aren't cool. Now ours were cool but it was still so freaking hot outside it didn't matter anyways.

3. Be patient

The icing will harden up and when it does its perfect! Try making the cookies a day before you want to serve them so they have time to harden

Other than that these cookies are super simple and I really want to try them again!

4th of July Wreath

2011-07-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!! It is so beautiful here in lovely California today. I just had to spruce up our house with this lovely yet simple 4th of July wreath!

My 4th of July Wreath, see below for a pdf with instructions on how to make this wreath!

Laura Mae's 4th of July Wreath

My Inspiration:

Source: allyou.com via Laura on Pinterest

Summer Projects-ABS Pipe Wine Rack

2011-06-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

Back in Feb for Valentines day my wonderful Boyfriend got me a year subscription to Martha Stewart Living!! Yay!!

Just a few pages into the February issue was this amazing wine rack that I knew I had to make for my dad!

Martha's Version

Martha used 4-Inch PVC pipe but my Home Depot only had 4-Inch ABS pipe, which is essentially the same thing when it comes to making a wine rack, now for typical uses like plumbing and what not theres probably an actual difference.

Here is how Martha made her Wine Rack.

And here is how I made mine!

DIY Wine Rack How To: (Print)

1. Cut Pipe into 1 foot pieces:

You will need to use a hacksaw for this. Some hardware stores will do it for you (I lucked out and mine cut it for me).

Laura Mae's Version

If thats not the case then cutting is simple. Just draw a line at 1 foot marks on your pipe with a pencil or chalk. Then you will need to steady the pipe on a hard surface with a ledge. Take your hacksaw and cut a straight line down the pipe.

2. Sand down the edges

You will be reaching in and out of these pipes and you don't want to cut yourself. Get some sandpaper and smooth out the edges on both sides of the cut pipes. Wipe down the pipes with a clean rag to wipe off all the loose plastic from sanding.

3. Paint (optional)

Since our wine rack is going inside a cupboard and won't be seen, I didn't paint mine.

If you want to paint yours make sure you wipe down the pipes with some acetone which will help the paint stick.

Spray paint works best for these pipes. Be sure to spray primer down first and let it dry completely before you add your color.

4. Glue the rack together

I used hot glue to adhere my pipes together. You can use ABS glue also if you are using ABS pipes, be careful because ABS glue is pretty messy and can mess up your paint job if you mess up. It is stronger than hot glue though. Martha was clever enough to use velcro! What a concept, she's so smart haha. Velcro would have worked nice too so you can customize your rack to fit where you want it.

Hot glue worked out fine for me. If you use hot glue make sure you have thick and long sticks of hot glue because it can dry faster than you can put it together. I started by gluing 3 pipes together then laying them off centered on top of each other. I used 9 pipes total but you can use as many or few as you want!

After we put our wine rack in the cupboard we decided to lay it down on its side instead and are going to add more pipes to them as we come across them. Dad said he may be able to pick up some extras laying around the job and bring them home.

Blog Facelift

2011-06-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Its about time for a redesign!
I am on a mission to be creative and Summer Projects are a must! I have so many things I want to make, remake, bake, oh the list goes on! Be prepared for some creativity in the near future.

In the meantime what do you think of the redesign, simplicity at its best.

New Logo

Face to the Book

2010-11-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

Yay! Christy and I finally have our Facebook up and running: http://on.fb.me/lmcpage

Check out our creativeness and be sure to post yours!

Bakerella Book Signing!

2010-10-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

Christy and I went to the Bakerella Book Signing yesterday at the William's Sonoma at the South Coast Plaza. The wait was about an hour and a half which wasn't too bad. Christy and Lisa had to leave early to go back to work so I kept their books for them and got them signed. Angie Dudley (aka Bakerella), was really sweet and I was super excited that I got to meet her!

The book, Cake Pops. It is beautiful. I love the way it is all laid out, all the spreads are so simple and gorgeous! Love it!

Waiting in line with our books, getting antsy. This is the end of the line. The front is all the way around the corner on the left hand side of this photo. Yikes!

And the wait pays off. Angie Dudley (aka Bakerella) and I. She was super cute and had suuuper cute pink shoes on! The display in the bakground was full of her books too it was cute.

Photo Re-Touch

2010-09-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Check it: The Before and After.

A Photo A Day

2010-09-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

I started taking a photo every single day back in January. On the 1st actually. I always wanted to do it and start on the 1st of Jan but always forgot. This year I remembered and have made it 242 days so far this year.

I've been working on revamping this blog and put in a page on the top of my 365. You can check it out and see my progress. I like being able to look back and see things that I did this year. Its fun. It is also a good way to help me remember things, something I'm not very good at.

You can also check out the website that I post my daily stories to.

Laura Mae's 365

I challenge you to start one. You can start anytime, you don't have to start on the 1st of Jan. Its fun, I like it. Plus it gives me an excuse to take a photo everyday, something I love doing anyways.

Enjoy!