Project Life Catch-Up

Since I just started up again with blogging, I discovered how far behind I was on posting my Project Life layouts (or ay layouts at all!). I originally started this blog to be able to keep friends and family up-to-date on family happenings. So in an effort to at least get PL posted, this should be one of many posts on my Project Life posting catch-up all the way back from 2012.

Week 35

Using Katie Nelson's Dear Mother Kit.

 

Detail

Week 36

Using Baby Edition for Him designed by Lili Niclass 

Detail

Week 37

Using the Cobalt kit designed by Kim Gayton

Detail

Week 38

 Using the Olive Edition kit designed by Heather Bailey

Weeks 39 & 40

There were a couple of weeks during the year that I did not have enough photos for a full layout so I combined them with other weeks. 

Using Beautiful Morning Kit by Karen Lewis

 Detail

I shall return for more!.....

January 2015 Round Up

Starting off 2015 with a bang!  I have been trying to take notes in Memento on certain stories I want to remember to document, and true to my goal for this year, I have completed this months Roundup. The monthly roundup was created by Katie the Scrapbook Lady. It is not only a reminder to journal the stories while they are fresh in your mind but also to do those tasks that can sometimes get out of hand if you let them sit unfinished for long periods of time, like downloading photos, tagging them, and backing them up. I have officially completed all of that. I am hoping to add choosing photos for my PL spread as part of my roundup in the near future, but for now, I am feeling really accomplished for getting all of these other tasks done. So here goes:

JANUARY 2015 ROUNDUP

What We Did:

01. New Year’s Party at the Bahlman’s  03. Mommy and David day at Veteran’s Memorial Park, or as David calls it “different park,” then off to the Winslow’s to help them unpack at their new house  09.  Stopped by House of Chicken and Ribs in Antelope to visit with my old boss Kim  10. Daddy and David day at the International Sportsmen’s Expo  17. Through lots of tears, David’s first time successfully going potty in a public restroom at Joann's  19. Daddy and David day the Sacramento Discovery Museum  31. Jaxson Bahlman’s 4th birthday party.

* I am looking to implement the format used by Green Fingerprint shown here of documenting activities throughout the month on a journaling card. And I am soooooooo jealous of her awesome handwriting!

Watched:

Unbreakable in the move theater

Dallas Buyers Club, Lee Daniel’s The Butler, and Philomena on cable

The return of Downton Abbey and Shameless on TV

Read:

The Godfather by Mario Puzzo

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

 * I am not sure if I want to write more detail on how we liked the movies or books, but I probably will at some point. I think this would offer some insight into our personalities way down the road when David or our grandkids are reading these.

Listened To:

David started singing along to songs we sing to him like "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," to which he sings “weemo way, weemo way.” He is also signing along to songs he hears on the radio like "Stayin’ Alive" (“hi, hi, hi, hi, stay in 'ive, stay in 'ive”), or my personal favorite, Bob Marley’s "Three Little Birds." It was on my iphone shuffle one morning on the way to daycare and I could hear him in the back seat singning “ebery wittle fing, gonna be a'right.” This hit a particular chord in my heart since there was a time in 2011 when I was having a difficult time in my pregnancy. I was headed home to rest, crying and freaking out that I might lose him, and this song came on the radio. Suddenly, a sense of calm came over me, and I knew everything would be alright. Hearing him sing it in the back seat was a great reminder of that moment and that everything truly did turn out alright!

The Stories:

• David is doing excellent with his colors. He knows the colors of the rainbow and even recognizes some of the more difficult colors like white and “grape” for purple. He can count up to 16 and knows his abc’s from the song. We joke about how his mind is a steel trap, but we are finding that he remembers stuff from weeks or months ago, like seeing Jonathan’s old phone sitting on the table, he said, “Daddy says ‘Go ahead’,” which is something Jonathan used to say on his push to talk phone, that he has not had for several months. Or when we went shopping at Joaan’s and he remembered that he got a candy bar for going potty there and wanted to go again. The first time he went there, I lost my keys and was really upset searching for them a few times in the bathroom before I was able to find them at customer service. This time, after we left the bathroom, even though this was two weeks later, he said “Oh, Mommy, your keys!”

• In the second week of January, David started asking to wear big boy underwear. We had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get him out of diapers over the weekends, so I told him no for two days and said we needed to wait for the weekend. By the third day in a row of him asking for them, I figured I better encourage it now while he is showing interest. And he did great!  There have only been a few accidents since then, but we can officially say he is now potty trained! 

• David says “I want” quite a lot. We have noticed this month that he has really embraced “maybe later” as an answer. We may say no to things, but when he replies “maybe later?” and gets a yes, he seems to accept it as ok instead of getting upset like a lot of other kids would. What is truly mind boggling is that, even at 3 years old, he actually understands too that this truly means no for right now may not mean no forever and if he asks again later, we may say yes.

• David is starting to tell us about his dreams when he wakes up. This month is was all about “The lion is up the stairs and I was scaredy.” He has been talking about the lion for days, saying “He would eat me in a minute,” or “He made a mess and Daddy had to clean it up.” We started to tell him how Reba and Maggie would protect him or how he could tell the lion to go away. So now he tells us in a deep, Damien like voice

Project Life 2015 Plans

I have seen a lot of the blogs that I follow (religiously!) posting lately about their 2015 Project Life plans, which has got me thinking about my own plans of how I want to tackle my Project Life album this year. So here goes: 

Weekly vs. Monthly

I did a weekly album in 2012 for my first year. Since David was born in December of 2011, it was a great way to document his first year and I really, really, REALLY appreciate having details of watching him grow week by week. It is also what really made me fall in love the Project Life documenting process. But I have no idea how I actually finished that album, especially with a newborn in tow! I also missed having some traditional layouts and did not feel the PL album was the place to house these, like a lot of others do. 

So in 2013, I switched to a monthly format and loved it! It is not overwhelming trying to complete, and I still get some of those details documented in at least a snapshot format. I am getting photos of our life in an album that I never would have scrapped before, or even if I wanted to do a traditional layout for, may have never found the time to. I continued this in 2014, though I am still working on getting that year together. What I find missing from this format is that I go back and try and complete these later. I can remember some of the who, what, when, where, why details, but what I can’t remember is the cute things David said, or what he is currently learning, or what struggles and joys we went through during that month. I know when I look back on these, I will appreciate the photos but will miss the little details. 

So my plan for 2015 is to continue with the monthly format, adding inserts as needed, and make sure to journal stories as soon as they pop in my head. My phone is pretty much always with me, so I am still trying to find a good app that encompasses what I need. Right now, I am using Momento, but the jury is still out on what will work best for me. 

Documenting

Along the documenting lines, I want to get not only more David stories, but more extended family stories, and more current events. I feel like I miss a lot of what is going on outside our home as well as what is currently happening inside our home if I don’t have it in photos. I made a playlist on my new iPhone a couple of weeks ago of my top 50 all-time favorite songs and I thought how cool would this be to include that list in this month’s layout? I bet if I look back in 10 years, my tip 50 might change. I remember those lists my sister and I used to make as kids about who we had a crush on, who our favorite bad was, our favorite food, etc. We would hide them in our closet with a “Don’t Open for 20 Years” warning on the envelope. Of course, we always opened them a year after we wrote them and laughed at how much had changed in that time. I want more of that kind of nostalgia in my album, for our whole family.

I am using the monthly round ups as a basis but have been doing some searching for other prompts lately. My favorites have included documenting current events in the news and ones that ask about each of our favorites.   

Where Does the Time Go?

Part of my issue with my hobby is that I leave so much unfinished. I feel like I need to have dedicated, like a crop, to get away and really hunker down to get stuff done. But the truth is, I got my 2012 album done, documenting every week of that year, with only one or two crops that year. So how did I do that? It's much simpler than I make it out to be once I really think about how I got away with that. I never had a while chunk of time to sit down and do much of anything, with a newborn/infant, a hubby, a full-time job, and a household to run. So I made my time work for me whenever I could. That may have meant I only got 10-15 minutes a day or even 10-15 minutes in a week, but I made sure to be aware of opportunities to get on the computer or site at the desk for a few minutes after David went to bed, or a few minutes before I went to bed myself. I need to remember in the times when I am sitting around watching TV or playing games on my phone, that it wouldn't be that hard to re-focus some of that time toward my hobby. Scrapbooking brings me lots of joy and I need to remember that more often and make time for it, even if it is for only 15 minutes.

Workspace

Part of my struggle was a lack of workspace in our new home. Not so new anymore since we have been here two years. And not for lack of space, I have my own craft room, after all. But for lack of communal space, I don't often get into my craft room, because David gets too bored or there is way too much in there for him to hurt himself on. So I rarely ever go in there. I am looking forward to the day WAY down the line when I can actually get in there on a regular basis. So in the meantime, what do I do? Hubby and I started brainstorming about how we could outfit a little space in our living room. So far, nothing has been ideal, but we came up with a temporary solution at least. We put the leaf in our dining table to extend it and set up a large mat for me to work on at one end of the table. My own little space that will allow me to craft or be on the computer and still be around and involved with the family.

My Approach

I have approached PL the same way since I started and it definitely works for me. I am not a fan of my writing, so I already know I want typed out journaling cards. Digi kits have been my go to, but I also love the aesthetic appeal of the dimensional elements. I am also pretty handy and quick with Photoshop. Not to mention, I am VERY fickle and change my mind a lot, so the flexibility of digi kits of finding what cards work with that layout, has been a huge plus for me.  So my process of getting a layout done has always consisted of the same steps. I will go through the steps of how I get it all done in a later post. But for now, my 15 minutes are up!

Hello 2015!!!!

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my last blog post. I REALLY can't believe 2014 is already over! 2014 seems to have gone by in a flash.

Like many others, I seem to start out the new year with a lot of motivation for my goals that within a few months seem to fizzle out. I really enjoyed my "To-Do" list in 2010 and kept on top of it, although I was horrible at posting blog updates about it. So similar to 2010, this year I thought I might set some monthly mini-goals. There are lots of things I want to focus on this year. There are lot of things I went to do better... or be better at. But rather than using "better" as a goal, which can easily turn into excuses for displaying a minimum amount of effort, I have decided to challenge myself.

• I challenge myself to blog at least at least once a month.
• I challenge myself to try a creative photography technique at least once a month.
• I challenge myself to create something scrapbooking related at least once a month. 
• I challenge myself to one health related goal at least once a month. (i.e. quit soda, no fast food, no chocolate, etc.)
• I challenge myself to have mommy and me time with David at least once a month.
• I challenge myself to make sure Jonathan and I get date nights at least once a month.
• I challenge myself to keep up on monthly roundups.

I feel I have missed documenting a lot of David's cute little sayings or milestones that I know I will want to look back on some day. I am hoping if I keep up on my roundups, I will document these little things on a regular basis, even if I can't get around to adding them to my scrapbooks for a while. It's a LOT harder to try and remember what he was up to two months ago, let alone two years ago, when I am finally getting around to scrapping the photos.

Hello to 2015 and hello to challenging myself to be a better me!

Project Life Week 34

I'm so excited! I actually FINISHED my 2012 Project Life last weekend. I stuck with it and got it done and I'm so proud of myself. I must say going back through it is a real treat. I get to see how much my boy has grown over his first year and it's all documented in one big book.

So now I am playing catch up with posting my layouts. Here is Week 34 using Becky Higgins Cobalt Kit

The Full Layout:

The Left Side

 

The Right Side

 

Some Detail

Technical vs. Emotional

One of my favorite photographers, who is a working mom like me, a great photographer, and an honest blogger, posted this story about technically perfect versus emotionally perfect photos. I completely agree with her philosophy and sometimes wish I had a better grasp of some of the technical aspects pf photography, but what speaks to me about my approach to taking photos (and I think what others have enjoyed as well) is the emotional aspects I can capture. I love catching those candid moments more than anything. After reading her post and going back through some of my photos, I definitely see the emotion jumping out at me in some of them... and not so much in others, of course. So here are a few of my recent favorites...

 

Four years and Counting

I am finally getting around to looking at some of this years photos, including our trip to the Pumpkin Patch in October. We try to get the same photo of my niece, Isabella, in the same spot every year. Putting them all together makes me realize how time flies!

Here's four years of Bella....