Top 10 of 2011

I'm always happy to see a new year come. There is something refreshing and energizing about a new start with unknown opportunities and experiences. On New Year's Eve I became very sentimental. Last year at this time, Shane was off to a new city to start a new job without us as we stayed behind to finish the school year. 2011 was a year filled with lots of "new" things and experiences. Some exciting, some really hard and gut wrenching. We lived without Shane for six months, moved to a new city (read into that finding a new church, new friends, new schedules and creating a new normal for our family), said goodbye to old friends and family (really hard), started at a new school, new activities and sports for the kids, and exciting successes and opportunities in Shane's career.

Every night at dinner, everyone takes turns at the table telling their best and worst parts of the day. To celebrate the new year we changed it up and had everyone share their favorite memories of the year. I took those and made a mini-album of the Mize Family Top 10 of 2011. After I finished the book, I thought that I probably should have done a Top 11 of 2011. Oh well, next year, right?!

I took 3 sheets of 8.5"x11" kraft cardstock and cut them in half creating 6 half pages that were 5.5"x11". I then glued 3 of the half sheets together to create a thicker front cover and then the other 3 sheets to create a back cover. I measured where I wanted my two holes to bind the book together, used a hole punch and then bound the book with binder clips. For my pages in the book, I chose my color scheme and then cut sheets of cardstock, punched my holes to match the cover and then I was ready to get started.

I used Papertrey Ink's Background Basics: Newsprint to create a newspaper background to tie everything together. I also cut numbers 1-10 in black to keep the book flowing.

Overview of the book and favorite #1 - "Family" - pages 1 and 2.
Favorite #2 - "Our Yard" - pages 3 and 4.
Favorite #3 - "The Pool" - pages 5 and 6.
Favorite #4 - "The Beach" - pages 7 and 8.
Favorite #5 - "Camp" - pages 9 and 10.
Favorite #6 - "4th of July" - pages 11 and 12
Favorite #7 - "Sports" - 13 and 14.
Favorite #8 - "New School" - pages 15 and 16
Favorite #9 - "Boo!" - page 17
Favorite #10 - "Snow Fest" - pages 18, 19, 20.
2011 was a great year. I had a great time putting this little book together and reliving some of it while I was working. Happy 2012 to all of you and here's to creating a whole boatload of new memories this year! :)