Finished up 2014! Even though this time period included Christmas I didn’t even do an insert because I will be putting together a holiday minibook (eventually). I really just wanted to get this done, and I did.
I definitely didn’t feel like doing an end page but I hated the look of the empty page protectors, so I did this. And now I’m thinking I might do something similar for my 2015 title page because I really don’t have time to get creative or take additional photos just for that. We’ll see!
Happy Friday! The kids and I have had a fun (although lacking in sleep and too quick) trip to see friends and we are headed home today to settle back into routine. We have a busy January but after that I’m hopeful things will calm down!
My memory-keeping projects are all still in progress. I’m on track with Project Life, but this weekend I need to wrap up 2014’s album and put together a title page for 2015. I am slowly working on my Week in the Life album, and I plan to share each day here as I complete it. Once that is done I’m going to work on my December Daily album. If it’s summertime before that one gets finished I might just wait till next year to share it. :)
Anyway! Here is a spread from the first two weeks of December. Since I am doing a specific holiday minibook, I mainly included everyday life stuff here.
Not a whole lot to say about it!
So that’s that! Happy new year to everyone; be safe and have fun. :)
As I’ve mentioned a few times already, this year I am taking part in Ali Edwards’ class One Little Word. I have been following Ali for years so I’ve been familiar with her approach of taking on a word to help guide your intentions for the year, but I never felt compelled to do it myself until now.
A couple of months ago I was going for a run around my neighborhood and listening to a podcast – I am pretty sure it was this one where Jess Lively interviewed Ali. They were talking about the one little word concept and all of a sudden the word LIGHT popped into my head. It felt very clear and I just knew at that moment that in 2015 I would choose a word and it would be light.
Months later, and I don’t feel exactly the same as I did that day but I am still certain of my word. It is extremely multi-faceted; it can be a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb and it has dozens of definitions. Here are the ones that spoke to me most:
>something that makes vision possible
>spiritual illumination
>bright and airy
>cheerful, intended to entertain
>gentle
>capable of moving swiftly or nimbly
>to take fire
>with little baggage
I am entering this project openly, not knowing what to expect. Some of those definitions I want to bring into my life literally. Some are figurative. I don’t have a set plan for my word because I just want it to guide me and be an inspiration, but right now I have a few thoughts:
I want to be a light. I am thinking of this in spiritual terms, mainly. One thing I will be doing to enhance this is to take part in Beth Moore’s scripture memory program. I will be memorizing one verse every two weeks for the next year, and all of the verses I’ve chosen have to do with light in some way. Jesus is the ultimate light, I want more of him in my life, and I want that to be evident to those around me.
I want to feel lighthearted. This is kind of vague, and so not a measurable goal. That’s why this exercise is different for me. But for the last couple of months I’ve struggled with getting bogged down with stuff that really doesn’t matter and I’ve felt grumpy. My attitude lately has been better, but I still want to take action on some things that are weighing me down. For example, my one big goal for the year is to reduce our debt. There are also a bunch of nagging tasks that I want to take care of. Our home isn’t very cluttered, but I definitely want to keep the “stuff” from overwhelming us.
I want to choose light. I want to be gentle in my parenting and my dealings with others. I want to read more entertaining books and watch more funny videos. I want to keep running and get faster. I want to get outside more and see the sun.
As a part of Ali’s class there will be monthly prompts and I’ll be putting together an album that is part scrapbook, part journal. My plan is to share it, along with how I’m interacting with the word LIGHT on a monthly basis. I’ve also ordered a necklace with my word stamped on it, and I can’t wait to wear it every day to keep it visible to me.
I would love to know if you’ve done anything similar to this in the past, and how it affected you. I am excited to see where it leads!
Popping in to share a Project Life spread with you today. But before that, let me give you a little blog update…
The season of life where I am able to post daily is over for the foreseeable future. Work is busy, Liam is mobile, and other personal projects need to take precedence when I do get spare time. So my aim is to post here 2-3 times per week, but it won’t be scheduled.
You can expect similar content as always: thoughts on motherhood & life updates, tips for working moms, goal setting, memory keeping projects, creative pursuits, natural health topics, things I love, and thoughts on books & reading. Basically anything I’m up to or interested in. :)
So now onto Project Life, one thing I’m going to keep up with for sure and continue to share.
This spread was from November 17 to 30 and included Thanksgiving. I decided right away to do an insert for the holiday so I wouldn’t be jamming in the photos.
On the left side I have Liam’s 10-month update, a few cute snapshots, and journaling about one of our Saturdays.
Then on the right is a photo from David’s grandfather’s second 90th birthday family dinner, a selfie of me & Liam, Meredith at the dentist, and her posing outside. The journaling is more on dealing with Liam’s constant sickness (although thankfully he has remained well for the last week!).
I like this cute card and the sentiment “happy thoughts” was what I wanted to have regarding the situation. :)
Now onto the Thanksgiving insert:
For a title I just stamped onto cardstock and adhered it to a photo of our tabletop. Simple journaling about the day underneath, then a picture of the whole extended family.
The back is just more cute photos of the kids. Little details:
Here I stamped on a label and put it directly on the page protector.
And I added a tab like I do with all my inserts.
That’s that! I was wondering, what are your memory-keeping plans for 2015? Anyone thinking of starting for the first time?
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was very full but so much fun and the kids did great.
Today I am home with the kiddos and the plan is to get our Christmas decorations up. It might be a 3-day process with a crawling, teething baby and a preschooler who wants to “help” around, but I’m determined to have fun. We have holiday movies lined up and nutrition is kind of out the window for the day. I might venture out to the craft store at some point, but only if I get up the nerve. :)
I just wanted to share my most recent project life spread with you, and talk a little bit about my plans for next year!
These weeks are from November 3 – 16. This was right after week in the life, and I was kind of worn out with photographing so I had very limited photos to work with. It was kind of fun to get some extra journaling and filler cards in though.
This photo of Meredith with her cousin Cameron is one of my favorites. They look soooo adorable. I hope they stay such good friends as they grow up (ditto for all of the cousins).
I’m really falling for wood veneers like this little heart, below. They are very popular in the scrapbooking world and I see why. I’m not very big into embellishments, but these are my style.
I used some of the seafoam core kit, which I haven’t used in a long time. I forgot how much I like some of it.
We went to a kids’ birthday party and Meredith was so scared of this giant slide at first. But after observing awhile and then trying out some smaller slides with the help of some bigger kids, she finally conquered the big slide and was going down backwards by the end. That little story is so typical of her and I loved this sequence of photos.
A picture of her nursing her baby doll. :) Another wood veneer that I love.
And just a little update on Liam’s health. During this entire time he was either sick or recovering from being sick and we saw a couple of doctors. I repeated that “hello” stamp several times during the whole spread and I liked that technique.
So I am still caught up on this project and I love this whole album a lot. It’s that time of year when it’s a good idea to start evaluating how I want to approach it next year. This may be boring, but I actually don’t think I’m going to change anything. Here are my reasons:
As for my other mini album projects – they are on my mind a lot but not much work is getting done since Liam’s been sick and the holidays are here. I have my title page done for week in the life, and I’m currently trying to decide exactly how I’m going to approach December daily (or a holiday minibook). I think I’ll have to take a personal day at some point (when I earn back enough PTO) to work on this stuff as it’s not baby/toddler-friendly!
Other than that, I just finished the advent calendar! I’m very excited about it. I’ll share more soon. Most of my Christmas shopping is done, and wrapping is on the agenda this weekend as well as ordering our holiday cards.
Happy long weekend! How are you going to spend it?