Project Life Weeks 3 & 4

Well, it's been a bit of a coaster the past couple weeks. Week 3 was start-of-term at EKU so Nathan was a busy, busy bee. As a result I took about zero pictures, and so Week 3 is only a half-spread (and an 8.5x11 page protector with some art in).

What happened in Week 3? I went to a book signing and Joseph made friends with everyone. Maggie made a block tower six blocks high. I taught the lesson in Nursery on Sunday. Maggie learned how to climb into her high chair all by herself. She also did a load of freehand crayon art. I spent some time ruminating on priorities and being the "perfect" wife, mother, housekeeper, scrapbooker, blogger, person, etc.

Here are some close-ups from week 3.

 

 

Supplies used for Week 3: Photo Pocket Pages - Big Pack of Design A (60 Pages), Project Life Core Kit - Clementine Edition, K&Company Smash Stamp, Date, EK Success Millennium Pen .05mm Line Open Stock, Black, Grid Cards 4 x 6, Silver Polka Dot Washi Tape, and a printable from We & Seredipity.

And, Week 4 (which I showed you some sneaks from last week):

 

Here's the smaller protector (Design H) that starts off the week: (The 3x4 card on the front of the insert is from the Cobalt Core Kit.)

 And here are the close-ups:

I'm really LOVING this card. It's a Seafoam title card, but I wanted the graphic feel to go with this insta-shot my niece took, so I printed out a 3x3 and tacked it on over the date label. <3

I love the similarity of Maggie and Joseph's poses here! And in the top and bottom photos as well.

I am kind of obsessed with Joseph's eyes. So that's what this pic is - getting in close on them.

 

Supplies used for Week 4: Photo Pocket Pages - Big Pack of Design A (60 Pages), Photo Pocket Pages - Small Variety Pack 1, Project Life Core Kit - Seafoam Edition, Project Life Core Kit - Clementine Edition, Project Life Core Kit - Cobalt Edition, K&Company Smash Stamp, Date, EK Success Millennium Pen .05mm Line Open Stock, Black, Mini Arrow Brushes by Odd Hearts,  Moody Blues by Bella Gypsy, Sticko Alpha Stickers, Large Serif Foam/Black. and a printable from Balancing Home.

 That's it for me for this week. I'll be doing a 1-page spread for Week 5 so I can get back to my double-page spreads with Week 6. :D I'm linking this post up at the Mom Creative - can't wait to see what the rest of you have done this week!

PL Sneak Peek!

So, I meant to have Weeks 3 & 4 posted tonight, since I'm a week behind on the blog. I'm still printing pictures, though, so I don't have completed spreads to show you yet. Bummer. But I do have a couple of things to show you that I think are really cool. A few weeks ago, I clicked through a link in the Project Lifer's Facebook group to a blog called Document Life Workshop. They're all about tips, prompts, challenges, and ideas to help you (as the archiver) get your memories recorded. I am kind of in love. A few weeks ago, they posted a challenge to make yourself a visual reminder of your personal or family goal for the year. Well, as you know, dear readers, my goal is to "finish" what I start this year. And wow is it turning out to be a doozy this year. :| More on that in another post. But, with as down as I have been feeling the past couple weeks, I really felt a tug when I read that prompt. A reminder of why I am doing what I am doing is just what the doctor ordered. So I made this lovely little card:

I used an arrow from Mini Arrow Brushes by Odd Hearts,  Moody Blues by Bella Gypsy (November's Facebook Fan Freebie - link is to BG's shop), and Sticko Alpha Stickers, Large Serif Foam/Black. The font I used is called Corbel.

I love the reminder in this - just keep trucking until you finish. Lord knows it is something I need practice with! You can find the link to Document Life Workshop's Visual Reminder Challenge here.

And here are two 4x6 collages I made for week 4 of Project Life, inspired by a recent post at Document Life Workshop where Megan and Allie listed some of their Product Picks for 2013. One of those products were a few 4x6 collages by Paislee Press. While I did download the Paislee Press collages, I also felt like making a few templates of my own, and used two of them in this week's spread:

The first spread is of my hot dog bun pizza experiment, and my daughter stuffing her face with it (success!!!), the second is of my newly organized scrapping space - aka my kitchen table.

That's it for the sneaks tonight, but I plan on having Weeks 3 and 4 posted by Saturday evening, so make sure you check back! Thanks for visiting, and God bless.

Project Life 2013 - Week Two

First, I would like to thank everyone who has visited and commented on my Week 1 things. :D I really enjoy seeing your comments and the Blogger's visitor breakdown. I love that I am reaching so many people, even considering that I only just started Project Life. 

Thank you so much for helping me keep excited about and on top of this project!

My Week 2 spread is all about SIMPLE. It was a crazy difficult week, between two sick babies, no sleep, cleaning all the public areas of the house, and trying to keep sane by myself while my husband was in Tennessee on a business trip. I didn't get ANY journaling done during the week itself (Friday 1/4 - Thursday 1/10) so I decided to leave it for the moment. I may eventually add a 4x6 flap pocket with our Week In Review card in it, but for now, it's made, and I am current.

That is what I LOVE about Project Life. This week has zero embellishments. I typed some journaling on a couple of the pictures, and did a cool trick with a photo and one journaling card, and it took me about an hour to put together (of course, it's taken two for me to photograph, edit, and write this post, but such is life). I just didn't have the time last week, so I chose to show that in our layout and I love the way it reflects our life.

Here's the left side (above) and the right side (below):

I only have one close-up for this week, since there's not much to need to see "closer" than you can see it now. It's of the final 3x4 photo in the layout. You may notice that it only has 2 rounded corners. That is because it is very cleverly hiding a 4x6 journaling card.

Part of what made last week so hard, a good part of it, was Nathan being in Tennessee on his trip. I was on 24/7 this week, and it was really physically and emotionally draining. "Hold It Against Me" by Sam Tsui was my anthem this week - I just had to get through, and then he would be home and I would have him here again. Since that song was so important to my mindset this week, I printed off the album art and cut it to fit the folded front of the card. It hides the journaling if you're just flipping through the album, but my husband and I know that it's there, and I know that my kids will like reading about our relationship and how we handled situations like these someday.

Just in case you've never heard it before, here's the video for "Hold It Against Me".



I really like this approach to getting behind (even if I was only behind a couple of days). What do you do when you get behind on your Project Life spreads?

Currently 2013 - Week 1

The Currently Journaling Challenge takes one minute out of your week to document your story right now. I found it from the Project Lifers group on Facebook, and it was started by Kristin from Rukristin Papercrafts. You can find more information about the Currently Challenge here. 

Currently was intended to be a journaling card insert for Project Life, but I wanted to take it a step further. I will be making 6x8 Currently pages over the course of the year, sometimes for me and sometimes for other members of my family, and making digital layouts for them in a Project Life style. At the end of the year, I will print all 52 Currently pages and put them in a 6x8 SN@P Binder, so that I can go back and look at this snapshot of where our family was in the little moments in 2013. I also like the idea of having another book to leave to my children, in addition to our big 12x12 Project Life binder for the year.

You can find the link-up for Week 1 of Currently 2013 here. I look forward to seeing everyone else's lists as the year goes on. And if you aren't taking part in the Currently Challenge, please consider it. It is so important that we as memory keepers leave behind not just a record of our families, but also a record of ourselves.

Five Minute Friday

Opportunity

I think sometimes I pass up opportunities because I am afraid of them. I am not good at keeping my house up, but I have the opportunity to clean every day. I have plenty of time that I could be picking things up, running laundry, doing dishes... But it's like a part of me is afraid of having things in order, or of being good at cleaning. Another part of me just insists 'let's just zone out. It can't bother us if we don't see it'.

I have a hard time fighting those arguments.

I'm not sure what exactly makes it so easy for me to ignore the mess instead of taking care of it, but I am making a concerted effort to try and be present in my surroundings this year. To finish projects that I start. To get the pile of laundry in my kitchen floor clean, folded, and put away.

And some days - most days - I don't measure up to where I feel I should be. It's those days that I thank God for grace and go to sleep - because tomorrow is a new day.

It's a new year. I want to take every opportunity I can.

Five Minute Friday is a blog feature on Lisa-Jo Baker.com. For more info on how it got started, click here. To see this week's link-up, click here.

Project Life - Week 1 Spread

And here we have it. I am so excited about all of this. Project Life, memory keeping, scrapbooking... All of it. I hope the enthusiasm stays.

Remember what I said about not really being good at this blogging thing? I'm still not. So once again I'm going to get out of your way and let the pictures do the talking.

Here's my spread for this week:

I don't really like how the light shows on the page protectors in this shot. I suppose I will get better at taking pictures of these as the weeks go on. Or maybe I'll just take everything out of the protectors and lay them out on the floor for my blog pictures. For those of you doing physical Project Life, how do you handle taking pics of your spreads?

Anyway, here's my left side:

 

And the right side:

  

Plus you get some close-ups.

 This is a picture of Joseph from Friday morning, and a card with our daily routine on it. 

Thhis card is a couple of pictures from our trip to Tennessee to see family. There are two more pictures from the Christmas party above and below this one.

A little journaling about how I am always half put together and a picture of me that I took in the car on the way home.

Since I'm a goober (or, super tired from dealing with babies all day, take your pick) I didn't get my 12:01 phone screenshot from new years day. But I did grab a quick one at 4:13 that included the weather. So that's something. Also in this close-up is the opening week's card on One Little Word. My word for 2013 is Finish. Nathan (my husband)'s word is Focus.

This one didn't nessicarily need a close-up but I will never turn down a chance to show off my babies. :) I almost didn't include the pictures of me, because I really hate hate hate the way I looked on Wednesday, but I keep reading about the importance of being IN your albums, not just making them. So, there I am.

Photo of my sleeping boy. Journaling talks about how we've been cosleeping for almost 5 months now. Wow! That's a long time! We originally started because I was breastfeeding and it helped everyone sleep better, but the breastfeeding didn't pan out and he sleeps through the night anyway (No, you didn't read that wrong. My 5 month old sleeps for a ten hour stretch at night, and has since we brought him home from the hospital. Please feel free to be jealous, if I was anyone else I totally would be too.) moving him to the crib (still in our bedroom) won't be the end of the world. But I will totally miss cuddling with him at night.

I caught Maggie in a moment of spontaneous play tonight. She walked over with the play phone from her kitchen set, pressed some buttons, and had a conversation with her Daddy. It was absolutely the cutest.

Oh, and have a week in review card, too.

I lifted the design from @moncoff on Instagram. I loved it the moment that I saw it on her feed. It reminds me a lot of Cathy Zielske's Project Life style, for some reason. I love it a lot.

I don't have my OLW insert for the week finished yet. I'm still designing it, and between all the travel and recovering from the travel I didn't meet my week one goal. So it has become my week two goal. I will finish my laundry. I am tired of my kitchen looking like a dump truck full of clothing exploded in it.

 

I think for the first real time I've documented a week as it happened (2012 doesn't count, I was always behind and half-finished), I did pretty well. 

Crossing my fingers I get better as the weeks goes on, though.