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I have another Project Life spread for you today. This is from February 11 to 24 and it’s a little different than the normal.

These were hard weeks. I didn’t take many photos and little things happened but the focus here was our trip to South Carolina for my uncle’s memorial service.

However the week before that was Valentine’s Day, so I did want to feature that a little bit. I made up this random journaling card which I like but I think the hand stitching was kind of a waste of time. I like the way it looks but it would’ve been fine without it too. I can’t wait to relearn how to work my sewing machine so I can start stitching on paper; it’s so much faster that way. I’m excited because my brother’s girlfriend is coming over soon (she does theater costuming for a living and is a sewing whiz) and she’s going to help me figure out the tension problems I’m having with it. :)

Since there were lots of other little things that happened that weren’t really a focus, I included them all together on a large card.

This is one of the Valentine’s Day cards I made for Meredith to take to her classmates, and a recap of some work I did on setting up the writing desk and bookshelves.

Now the right side is all about our trip even though it was only a few days long. That’s okay.

I wrote a little recap using the same journaling card twice, just flipped upside down. I love how it bookends the story.

And here I just wanted to show how I stuck on the Southwest Air “wings” that Meredith was given and wore all day for her first flight. I was so proud of how well she did!

I actually intend to include an insert with the text from this blog post because it contains a lot of the thoughts and feelings from that time, but my printer is currently acting up and I don’t have the time or patience to fix it so that will come later.

Happier spreads to come. Enjoy your Friday and the weekend ahead! :)

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.