project life progress.

so a quick project life update is overdo. i'm about done with april - and halfway through may... but almost EVERY spread looks like this. 

post it notes. 

i'm still hunting + gathering pics i know either friends or my hubby have. hence, the "group pic from bolsa" that i haven't printed yet because it came from a friend. 

but that's okay. 

i'm making progress and that's what it's all about.  

and now that i have a system down, i tend to put things {like tickets + brochures + receipts} directly into the book {or my PL box} instead of them floating around somewhere else. it's helping my paper clutter elsewhere in our house for SURE! 

 how are your spreads going? have you gotten started?? i'd LOVE for you to share your way of project life. i LOVE getting inspiration in new places! 

first finished spreads {a project life post}

 why hello, there!!

it's thursday! woohoo!! i have one more day of school!!!!!! i don't know how you darling teachers survive this week. the kids are CRAZY and the moms have stopped caring a while ago. even the good ones! {i think i'm a pretty good mom.... and i haven't signed my sweet one's folder in two weeks.} 

cheers to you, teachers + parents alike. you did it! another year in the books. now some fun time sitting by the pool! enjoy yourselves. you deserve it!!

now, onto project life. 

i'm going to TRY to update pretty consistently on thursdays. but we'll see how that goes. you might just have to remind me. 

here are my first two finished spreads. i always get so excited to finish one - even if i have the intetions of maybe adding a few things back in a bit later. it's done enough.  and that's the point. it gets the job done. it records our memories in concrete form. boom.

a little word about inserts. i love all of ali edwards inserts that she used to do in her original project life books. and most of them she'd put in a nice and neat page protector. and i will on some, but for me - sometimes i find it easier to just punch holes in the side and call it done. 

bonus :: emptying out those tubs of papers that i can't bear to throw away but hate keeping as well.  

onto spread two.

if you're new to project life, please check out this post here. project life is a product created by becky higgins and is now found in major craft stores around america, including michael's joann and hobby lobby. i hope you find these project life posts inspiring + want to get started yourself. it is NOT scrapbooking - it's memory keeping. you do not HAVE to do anything fancy. it's just sticking it in a book so that you can have a concrete record of life. pretty simple.

getting started {a project life post}

**today is the last day to vote for brooke in the noonday contest!!! be sure to give her some love!**

hey hey sweet bloggy friends!!

i hope y'all had a great three day weekend! i know we did... and it was super hard to come back and get into the groove of school again!! i'm so ready for summer to officially be here! aren't you? {maybe you already have summer?!}

if you follow me on instagram, you know that i'm getting back into project life.

you can read about my original project life journey + products here.

if you are totally lost and have no idea what project life is, click here.it is a product created by becky higgins and is now available at hobby lobby and joann and michael's! woot! 

it's super easy - the hardest part is getting started. once you get over the initial getting started part you will be well on your way to the most fabulous un-scrapbook of your life! and your kids will LOVE it! 

as i'm trying to regain my bearings in the project life world, i've started off with this kit that i found on sale at hobby lobby last week. you do not need a kit, but i have found that it can be a jumping off point to just get going. 

one of the hardest things to start {especially if you feel behind} is printing and filing and editing pictures. uggghhhhhhhh. it's the WORST, to be quite honest. and if i'm being real here - it's hard for me because i want to edit every. single. picture. and that's just impossible. 

but i watched this video and read this post by ali edwards and it helped to train my thoughts. i don't spend too much time on the pictures for my album because it is NOT about ONE picture. it's about life as a whole. {that's not to say that on the pictures i LOVE i DO spend time editing - because i DO!!}

the FIRST thing i did was decide that i'm only starting with THIS year. so starting in january - even though i've partially done albums for 2013 and 2012, i'm going to get 2014 caught up before i even attempt to find pictures and make sense of them for the previous years. 

decision made.

SECONDLY, i made five folders on my desktop for pictures. january / february/ march / april / may.  i then went through my iPhoto {where all my pics are uploaded} and started to drag + drop the pictures according to their approximate months into the appropriate folder. {including my iPhone photos that are on my photo stream as well}. so now all of my pictures are sorted by month. at least on my computer they are. 

i then started going back through each of the folders and opening the pictures 10 at a time in photoshop. i know that sounds like a ton, BUT i take a ton of pictures of the same thing - in hopes of getting that one great shot! i began deleting the ones i don't like/need and editing - very simply - the ones that i want to print and/or keep. i then save them and label them very complicated names, i.e. fieldday1 or openhouse3. i'm smart like that. 

after i get a good batch of them done, i go ahead and load them to wal-marts photo center. i'm pretty snobby about my pictures being printed. :) no, really - i used to use ritzpix {from wolf camera} when they'd have their 3-1/2 x 5 pics on sale for 9 cents each but they don't do that anymore so i've switched to walmart for two reasons. 1 - because it's super close to my house. 2 - because i've been super happy with the quality of my pictures for the price.

after i picked up my first batch of pictures - which were a few things in april - i came home and loaded up my pages {design a} through the month of may. and i went ahead and put in all of the date cards at the top left hand corner of the spread and penciled in the dates. i'll go back with a sharpie and write prettier as i finish each spread.

i also went in and put in the 3x4 cards in the middle part of the spread. my girlfriend who used to do project life as well did this and i think it will help me not feel like i have to fill it all in - something that gets me bogged down, especially when i'm trying to go backward a few months. but it will still look pretty + full no matter what because i have those darling cards in there. 

next i went through my planner and started to pencil in things on tiny sticky notes that i remember happening - and perhaps i had taken a pic on my phone or had a scrap of paper from. this will help as i go back and try to journal some things and make sure i have all the pictures that i want to have.

then i started to place some pictures in the weeks they go. i'm trying hard not to get caught up in the exact order of things. because, again, that's not what it's about. in three years when i'm looking through a book from 2014, i'm not going to be worried about whether or not this happened in the first week of april or the first week of may. as long as it's generally in the right time period, i'm trying to be good with that. otherwise, i'd never catch up. ever.

it's not rocket science - but sometimes i feel like i try to make it more complicated than it needs to be. the bottom line is that i just want it done. i just want hard copies of life for my kids {and myself} to be able to flip through once in a while.  because blogs are a record, but not near as much fun to flip through on a couch with a cup of coffee and tell stories with. right? right. 

won't you try to catch up with me? go get yourself some basic supplies and let's start together. you can do it. we can do it. and then we'll have something to show for it!!! i promise!