Project Life 2012: My Intro Page

I chose to do PL last year as way to deal with my wants, my realities, space, and time. I always kept a journal-log of my days, took lots of everyday photos, kept memorabilia and quotes, etc. I like some aspects of chronological memory saving but it butted heads with how life is, how I remember stories, we all know the issues. PL was a way for me to put all my stuff together in basically 1 place and be at peace with my love for journaling my days, my stash of receipts & cards, my need for some chronology, and all the rest. For all that stuff and my likes to be in one place – making it easier for me to create and easier to access –  a scrapbook of my year for me and family to enjoy into the future. How was my life in 2011. 

I write some notes, add some stuff my stash of memorabilia, slap on post-it notes with dates, print out so-so prints from my home printer as place holders while I wait for my photos. I’m more up-to-date with my journal notes ‘cuz I do those almost everyday. I do worry that it is becoming another it thing for us to do, to measure ourselves, to feel guilty about, to keep up with in terms of our fellow scrapbookers – as I read posts on folks worried they aren’t doing it ‘right’ or wanting to do it like so-and-so’s PL album. I admit to the struggle of keeping it to my style and having PL -envy after visiting the gallery, blogs, or Pinterest.I hope it remains as one of many options for us, to tweak and poke and create as individual as all our lives our. I hope that folks including myself don’t feel obligated to do it or do it a certain way. Sometimes it feels that a list of to-do’s has evolved – a checklist of sorts. And PL seems to be getting on that list.I found it interesting to read about your approach and the thoughts that went in to deciding to keep PL-type book. Of course, right there I’ve given it an expectation and standard! Yikes! Here’s to any type of memory keeping for the reasons that are important to each of us.
KatieK.

Those are really great ideas! I did like how Ali’s inserts break up the monotony and figured I’d have inserts a lot. Had never thought of doing what you said. I just might do that — at least for some weeks!

I want to wish your family the very best with your husband’s possible deployment this year. Thank you so much for your sacrifice and service (you, your husband, and your children).

Noell,
I was so surprised when I read your post/e-mail.  I ordered the Turquoise kit in early December.  I haven’t had much time to create lately and really wanted to capture some of our Holiday memories.  I thought this would be a quick way to capture our Holiday traditions and memories (Thanksgiving through Christmas) over the years.  I had not really planned on using it throughout the rest of the year.  I took pictures as things inspired me – I cannot commit myself to daily photos.  So here I sit on Jan 4th with most of the pictures in the pages, some journaling done and some full 12 X 12 pages that I want to insert for title page and/or larger memorabilia.  I’m also still waiting for some photos since I don’t print at home.

Overall I like it so far and can already see that after I get a few years in the album it will be a great book to pull out each Thanksgiving and go through with the kids as they grow up.  However, I think I need to adjust my printing process since waiting for online orders to be delivered after it already takes me a week or so to process and decide what to print doesn’t seem to work as well for me.  I imagine it would really cause issues with keeping up if I decided to do it throughout the year.

Thanks for all the inspiration!  Can’t wait to see how your album evolves.

ooh!  Clementine is purty!  however,  I am being a good little scrapper and using the turquoise kit that I bought last year but did not use.  I am super excited to be doing ProjectLife this year!