a glimpse into my experience with project life
last week's project life layout (can you spot my favorite part of this photo?)
i am so delighted to be humming along with Project Life over here. i got a bit behind but am filling in the missing pieces here and there and am really enjoying it. and it makes me so happy that jon is getting involved every now and then. two weeks ago, he and ellie were dancing to a few songs after dinner and i snapped some photos. after he put ellie to bed, he asked me if i would be sure to print one of those photos out for project life so he could write down a few words. YES! and the empty space above is for him to write a bit about his day in Portnald since the photos are all about ellie and me and our week together (since jon was mostly working).
one thing i appreciate about my experience so far with project life is that it continually pushes me to let go of perfection. i am so inspired by other people who scrapbook and capture everyday life this way. and when i started project life, i imagined incorporating more "stuff" in my layouts. not a lot, but i did envision printing out a few digital elements or writing the stories in pretty fonts sometimes or simply just adding a few small bits and bobs and rounding the corners of my photos and how the list goes on. however, i am letting that go for now because my goal is just to get the photos and stories into the binder. and because i found a pen i really like (no surprise here...am totally using my Smash journal pen), i am happy to be writing the stories by hand.
another aspect of my experience that i find interesting is how i go from writing the stories like i am writing them to ellie (as though they are little letters to her) to writing the stories like project life is really for me (as opposed to being "for" my family). it will be interesting to see how this continues to unfold. i am including self-portraits (like the one above that is from my "what is real" series) and more personal things (like a photo of a list in the self-care section of my journal) partly because i don't want to censor myself because project life is for the three of us. i think there can a temptation to just share the happy when we scrapbook for our families, but when i look back on these stories + photos, i want to see the real in all its forms.
having project life out where i see it everyday helps remind me to capture the stories when i think of them. and i continue to love how the canon selphy printer makes project life easier for me. i have the printer out next to the binder. i am also using the timer on my camera to capture ellie and me in some of our everyday moments, which really makes me happy. i think she will love these photos. actually, tonight as i was putting the photos in the binder she was really interested in what i was doing. later, she pulled me back to the kitchen table to look through the binder again like we were looking through one of her books. she pointed to all the little things from her daily life (her drink, crayons, mama, grandma, daddy, oranges, and so on) just like she enjoys doing with her books. it was awesome.
moving forward, i do plan to print out a few prompts using some of ali's phrases and other good things at designer digitals. i like the idea of handing a card with a prompt on it to jon or our babysitter or a friend who might be visiting and asking them to share a few words about the day with prompts like "today i want to remember" or "favorite moment of today." and i hope to buy a few things from france when she reopens her shop. i would also like to have some 4x6 cardstock ready to go to use as backgrounds or larger journaling cards. looking at the layout above, i wonder about that mostly blank date card almost everyone uses in the top left corner. i wonder if most people leave it blank or if some journal right onto it. it would be fun to add a few words every now and then maybe using letter stamps.
are you using project life? if yes, i would love to hear about how its going for you. and if you aren't, can you spot my favorite part of the photo on this page? makes me smile every time.
project life in photos + words
Reader Comments (4)
I am using Project Life-- second time around for me, and I am doing (roughly) a photo a day. I also love the release of perfectionism that has to happen-- and the places for other family members to contribute. Having a completed Project Life from 2011 spurs me on, because in its messiness, even in the few blank spaces when life did not lend itself to picture taking, it is amazingly eloquent in speaking the real, everyday texture of our family life.
On a practical note, for this year I'm mixing in some page protectors that allow for vertical 4x6 photos. I also occasionally add a page that holds baseball-card sized photos to supplement the week, when something really special happened. I sometimes add text to my photos in photoshop before I have them printed. And I've included a few bits of life-- product labels, ticket stubs and the like.
But mostly it is just this imperfect weaving of images and words and the simplicity of that, and letting go of perfect, is what keeps it chugging along.
Blessings to you as you continue to PL journey-- and thanks for writing about it-- it encourages me to be reminded about all that's great about the process as well as the product.
Is it the shoe on the table?
This is my second year of doing Project Life. Like so many my favorite part is the flexibility. Some weeks all I do is slide photos into slots and scribble a few words on a card and some weeks I take time and treat each slot like a little piece of art on it's own. Mostly it's somewhere in the middle.
But my favorite part is how I can look back at last year's Project Life and realize my life was really much more full of fun and Life than I would have remembered without it!
Is it the shoe on the table?
This is my second year of doing Project Life. Like so many my favorite part is the flexibility. Some weeks all I do is slide photos into slots and scribble a few words on a card and some weeks I take time and treat each slot like a little piece of art on it's own. Mostly it's somewhere in the middle.
But my favorite part is how I can look back at last year's Project Life and realize my life was really much more full of fun and Life than I would have remembered without it!
Popping in somewhat randomly here (loving your blog posts lately!). I'm on my second year doing Project Life, and one of the things I thought about in approaching year two was that "blank"/"empty" date card. It just seemed sort of unfinished to me. I've seen lots of people using that for an extra picture or some journaling. But in my other crafty adventures I tend to make mixed paper and fabric cards. So I've been challenging/encouraging my self to get a little scrappy with the date cards this year.
(hilariously, I went looking for a picture example ... and well ... I think you'll recognize something here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethelbertina/6743595669/in/set-72157628984582311/)
Project Life is awesome because it can be anything you want it to be!