Category: project life

So y’all know how much I love Project Life by now, and you also probably know how busy I am and that I am always playing catch up with it. But the thing is, I don’t let it stress me out at all (or I try not to) because I have gotten pretty good at taking notes. If you have notes and you have photos it doesn’t take much time at all to put together a spread. So since I’ve figured out what works for me I thought I’d pass it along.

This is the notebook that I have specifically devoted to Project Life notes. It’s a large Moleskine Cahier journal in the grid design. I think it’s perfect because it is lightweight and slim yet has more than enough pages for the whole year, it’s plain and customizable/flexible, and has a pocket in the back to store bits of paper.

So this is what I do. I use a page per week, put the dates at the top, then just take notes on each day as it happens. Sometimes at the end of the week I will write a summary at the bottom or add notes that don’t fit on one particular day. In this notebook I don’t include everything that happens but I try to only write down the stories or events that I will want to include in Project Life. I also note when I have a specific photo that goes with a story or a found paper or piece of ephemera.

This notebook is my main go-to resource when I sit down to make my spreads, other than the photos themselves. I will pull out my papers from the back pocket and lay them out with my photos, then reference my notes to see what I need to include. I rarely have a photo for every story so many times I will just write.

If I don’t have enough content or if I forget something that happens I will also reference my 5-year journal.

I am in my second year of it and although it is not specifically for Project Life and it is Meredith-centered it generally has a good overview of what happened on each day.

The last thing I use for reference is a great app called Momento. It’s a diary-writing app but the reason I love it is that you can sync all your social media feeds to it. So I always look through my feed on this to make sure there’s not some snippet that I’m missing. Also, sometimes I don’t have my trusty notebook with me or I’m on the go so I will use this app to record something I want to remember for later.

And that’s pretty much it! Let me know if you have any other questions or tips to share. :)

Finally I’m getting around to sharing some more of Project Life!

I got a little behind as usual but it’s no big deal. This is way back in the end of January and beginning of February.

Week 5:

This was back before my uncle died, when life was normal. This left side is just happy, including songs and books and everyday stuff.

Week 6:

Then things got crazy. My uncle died and so I devoted a journaling card to that. The following spread will include more about that since that’s when we went for his funeral. My birthday was also that week, as well as some crazy work stuff. I didn’t journal as much this week but left most of the photos as-is.

On my birthday I treated myself to some shopping and fun outings. I saved all the receipts and made a little pocket for them. Next to it I listed what I did that day.

I also wanted to remember some special time my dad and I spent where we painted a file cabinet. It was a nice distraction for us and a good excuse to be together. Next to the card with that info is a family picture taken at my birthday lunch.

Still loving this project. Can’t wait to catch up.

Thanks for all your comments and encouragement on my last post. Each one meant so much to me. I’m feeling a little better about things and I know it will keep improving with time. But now on to Project Life. I’m playing catch-up right now (what else is new), but I’m still loving the whole process. It’s therapeutic for me.

I relied heavily on my notes for this spread because the weeks have been blurring together. I’ve been tweaking my note-taking process so I’ll have a separate post on that soon.

Week 3:

This was the rough week where Meredith was throwing horrible tantrums every  night and we were just doing what we had to do to get by. My niece turned one and we celebrated her birthday. We took some family walks because it was one of the only things that calmed Meredith down. My mom had a birthday, and I made mother/daughter friendship bracelets.

Loving black and white photos these days.

Oh David, I guess it’s a good thing you’re not up-to-date on women’s fashion. :)

The walks were one good thing that came out of Meredith’s fussiness.

Week 4:

I took a day off work to take Meredith for her 18-month checkup. I used the opportunity to have coffee with a friend while my mom got some grammy time in. I had a sinus infection that just wouldn’t go away on its own. Meredith had returned to her happy self, the weather was beautiful, and for the most part it was a pretty fun week.

This is probably my favorite pocket and one of my favorite photos recently.

I included some highlights from this post, and thought the close-up of her face went well with it. I just want to smoosh her.

Look at her little legs hanging down!

There were a bunch of little things from this week that I didn’t have photos for, so I did a “week in review” card. I did these every week last year, but I like this approach better.

On to the next…

It’s my first spread of the year and I’m loving it.

I printed the photos for these weeks before I had really decided how I want to process and edit them going forward. I wasn’t sure that they would work with my vision but I think they did fine. It really helps to keep within the same color palate – I’m trying to lean heavily on the core kit to keep things looking cohesive and to simplify things for myself. If you ever wonder where I got a specific supply please ask! I don’t plan to share all the details in each post but I will gladly tell you if you want to know.

Week 1:

We spent most of New Years’ day at our good friend’s house out of town. The rest of the week was work, work, work and just survive. We celebrated David’s birthday and watched the Texans in the playoffs. I started playing this Hobbit game on the iPhone.

This QR code links to a video of Meredith playing throw the ball with my friend’s husband. She was laughing the whole time.

Yay for date nights!

Week 2:

We celebrated my nephew’s third birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Work eased up and we got back into routine. I chose my quilt size and design, finished The Passage, and did really well with family dinners (there was one dud meal though).

I’m going to try to streamline my note-taking for this project. I always work behind so notes are essential. I feel like I’m hitting the high points but not quite telling all the stories. I have some ideas and I’ll let you know what I come up with!

Here we go! I am already behind because I wanted to wait for my core kit to arrive before beginning, but I am taking notes and staying organized so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to catch up.

Most of the paper here is from the Seafoam kit. I’m pretty much in love with it, although I definitely gravitate toward the neutral and seafoam colors in it and away from the yellow/orange so I just used the ones I like best here. The number stickers in the top left pocket are ones I’ve had forever and I think I just got them at an office supply store. The “we” badge in the bottom right pocket is from Ormolu but I can’t find it in stock right now.

The part I stressed about most with this cover page was finding a photo of us. Last year I did individual portraits and that’s what I had in mind, but I ran out of time to take them and the thought of trying to get them done stressed me out. I also didn’t have any good family shots that weren’t holiday-related. This photo of us that I chose originally had a Christmas tree in the background and that’s not the vibe I was going for. :) So I turned it black and white and blurred out the background in PSE. I think it works! This copy was printed on regular paper and is poor quality, but I will switch it out for a better one soon.

I’ve had these tags from the Etsy shop Handmade Modern for awhile and I thought this would be a good place to use them. I stuck them in pockets with Project Life grid paper.

On this paper I used a stamp from the Studio Calico Day by Day class to add a little extra.

As I’ve been preparing to start this new album I’ve had some thoughts about how I want to do it:

>This year my weeks will go from Monday to Sunday in order to keep the weekends together.

>I’ll be working primarily with the Seafoam core kit. I do have other things to add, but it’ll probably form the basis of the entire album.

>I want to include more black & white photos. I’m really going to try to keep a similar color scheme and feel to each spread, so if a photo doesn’t quite “fit” I’ll probably turn it black & white.

>More QR codes to videos! They are so fun.

>Since I’m already blogging about my pages, I want to use that space to recap our weeks as well. That way I can easily keep you up to date with our current happenings.

That’s what I’ve got for now! I’m so excited for this year. :)