embarking on Project Life 2013

Week 1 (love including items Ellie makes at school)

This year, I'm using the Seafoam Kit with bits from the Clementine Kit and a few other good things. And hopefully I will begin to get a bit better at photographing these layouts but my intention in sharing these is more to encourage you to print out your photos and write down your stories and less about me saying, "look how pretty!" (Insert me smiling and winking here.) Because my Project Life album isn't about perfect. It's about getting these stories out of my computer (and my head) and onto paper.

Week 1 close up (made the collage instagram photo of EJ and me at the top using an app - love it!)

So far I'm really loving the 4x4 page protectors for mostly Instagram photos (printed from PostalPix) and a few 4x6 photos that I cut to fit. Because of the turnaround time for the PostalPix photos to get here (it isn't long but can be a week), I'm using a post-it with the photo description as a space holder if I'm waiting for a photo. This way I don't get too behind and can finish the rest of the layout.  

Week 2

Another reason I'm using more Instagram photos this year is because 1) I usually have my iphone with me and often upload my favorites to Instagram and 2) perhaps more importantly, this way I'm included more in the album, which is a goal for me this year. (I take a lot of self-portraits on Instagram.) Plus iphone photos are the only ones I really take with both me and Jon or of all three of us.

Week 2 closeup (I was feeling out of words during this week and loved that I could just use the "who what when where..." card and the "life looks like" card)

I've also been uploading my 4x6 photos to Walgreens and having Jon pick them up on his way home from work (or I upload them at 11 at night and pick them up in the morning and stop for a Starbucks treat as a way to get out of the house on studio days). For some reason, this feels easier right now, but I still use the Selphy if I want to print one or two photos.

Week 3 (with an insert of these photos)

A few favorite supplies in addition to the kit:

• Journaling with my Smash pen and these Sharpies
• Martha Stewart labels
• Ali's journaling cards
• Grid journaling cards cut to 4x4 for journaling on those layouts
• I changed to this corner rounder this month and I love it!

Week 3 close up

One big piece I've realized so far this year: I've let go of narrating the photos I use. Meaning, I don't always journal about the photos. Sometimes there is a story I want to tell with a corresponding photo or two, but often I want to include stories that don't have photos. And really the photos themselves tell their own stories. This is another way I keep letting go of any need for perfection with this project. Week 3 is a great example of this.

Just like last year, I'm continuing to include bits of journaling about the real life/hard stuff. Like the awesome beauty and intensity of being a mama to a smart little girl who understands so much but still has the emotions of a two year old to sift through each day. Including these pieces is really important to me and has helped me see how much of this experience is for me.

To read more about how I approach Project Life (and how I let go of perfection big time with it), see this post.

If you are new to Project Life, head over to Becky Higgins' site to watch a fun short video that explains everything.

PS You shared some awesome comments/emails after I wrote this post about why I take self-portraits and I want to respond to them. Look for a post about that next week.

PPS Registration for the Summer Your Story Retreat will begin next Wednesday, February 6. (The retreat website will be updated with more info on Monday.)

pieces of this week

Monday started slow

I voted from my couch (this is your gentle reminder to vote)

Mary Oliver guided me back to myself again

I lit a candle and sent lots of love across the miles as I listened to the news

 

I helped a two year old build a boat and felt like I really had it together as a mama for a little while

I worked on a new collection of jewelry inspired by the magic where the forest meets the sea along the Washington and Oregon coasts

This little girl made my heart grow bigger as I witnessed her joy in the simple moments

I found my way to rest

And I made space for in-person connection and had lunch with a new friend.

As the rain falls and we settle in for a Friday evening, I hope this weekend will be full of time to recharge and have fun and unplug and laugh and read poetry and maybe even go on a date. 

May your weekend be full of lightness and ease...

navigating project life

Since January, I've been capturing our world through photos + words using Project Life.

I love it.

When I posted the above photo on Instagram last week, a friend commented that she was so behind in documenting her family photos. And I wrote back, "Just start now." I wrote this because I have been in that place of waiting. How can I start printing out photos from this week if I still have so many of Ellie's baby photos trapped in the computer? But if I waited, I would never hold these photos in my hand. So finally, I just dove in.

My friend's words prompted me to write this post because I really want to share why Project Life is working for me. 

The big reason: There aren't any rules.
{For real.}

(If you are new to Project Life and don't really know what I'm talking about, head over here to Becky Higgins' site and watch this short video and then come back. I'll still be here.)

As I play with paper + photos + a few stamps + ink, I am letting go of ALL the rules that people might make up for themselves with Project Life. Here's what I mean:

a glimpse at my studio table in action

I didn't feel like I got into my groove with Project Life until late summer. Up until then, I was mostly using products from the original Amber Project Life kit I had purchased in early 2011, but I wasn't loving it. I like this kit, but I wanted more variety and simpler, plainer options. And as I started using Instagram more, a lot of the photos I wanted to use were square, but I didn't have a way to print them.

And then deeply inspired by the approaches both Ali and Elise use, I drilled down to a very simple look and added a few more pieces to my toolbox:

I bought the Clementine core kit when it became available because those colors are more me. (And I can't wait for the new Seafoam kit!)

I bought the grid cards in both sizes + the plain white cards. They are simple and easy to use and don't distract from the photos.

I started using Postal Pix to print 4x4 Instagram photos (then using these two types of 4x4 pocket protectors).

I started using stamps from Elise and Pam Garrison (these are the stamps you see throughout my layouts) and they are giving me a more unified look that I like. They are also great prompts for me (and you know I love prompts). Honestly, I am kind of obsessed with their stamps. Check them out if you journal, art journal, or use Smash books. Awesome women. Awesome products.

I started using mostly blue and black ink for stamps, my writing, and letter stickers to keep the look more consistent.

I moved everything into two black binders because I like how they look on the bookshelf.

I started using my typewriter because it just makes me happy.

And I let go of needing any kind of perfection. For example:

• I don't worry about how many days are in a week. Sometimes a layout is from Monday - Sunday, sometimes it is Sunday to Sunday. The me of one year from now and five years from now does not care about how many days are represented in a layout. I go with how many pictures I have and the stories I want to tell. 
• I don't love my handwriting, but I love reading my mom's writing, my grandmother's writing, so I am writing a lot because it is easy. I struggle with using digital elements and even though I love how they look so clean, the learning curve to figure it out is too much for me. When I want to include longer stories that are right from my blog, I'll just put them into a Word document at the right size and print on cardstock and trim to fit.
• I don't try to tell a story from each day. If I do, that's great. But this never crosses my mind.

• I tell the stories I want to tell. Sometimes there isn't a photo that goes with the story. I write it out anyway. 
• If I'm stuck for a story, I look to Facebook posts and Tweets and Instagram and my blog. 
• When I get behind, I sometimes just lump weeks together into one or several layouts without worrying about what order the photos are in and just put a general date at the beginning of that section of layouts. Crazy! I know! Here is what I mean: When we visited my mom and Steve in April, we were gone for three weeks and had quite a few photos from our adventures that I wanted to include. And I found myself about five weeks behind in Project Life. I didn't want to get into the details of what day we did what and instead just wanted to get those photos off of my computer and into the album. I just put one general date card for the entire month of April and put the photos in where they made sense. It was easy and totally okay with me. 

• I don't let holes in the layout stop me from moving forward. There are a few blank spots where things are missing but I've just put notes in so I can back at some point. 

• Sometimes it is all about me. There are a lot of photos of Ellie in this album, and a lot of photos of Ellie and Jon because I am usually behind the camera. I'm totally okay with this. But I'm including myself too. The week covering the Unearth Retreat is all about me. This will probably happen again as I continue using Project Life. And when looking at the big picture, it makes sense because I am the one putting the album together and thinking "in stories." 
• I let Ellie help me. She loves looking through Project Life.* And she often wants to "help" when we are in my studio. Helping might mean she sits on my lap and helps me stamp journal cards. Sometime it means I give her a blank white card and she draws on it (or decorates it with stickers) and I stamp it with the date and add it in.  

• I share the real stuff. This might mean a raw self-portrait or a photo of our kitchen in all its messy glory. This might mean I tuck some writing behind a photo to be found later. I want this album to capture what is real. It isn't gritty by any means and there are a lot of happy photos of Ellie, but I want to share the tough stuff too.

Other things that work for me:

• I have several baskets on my studio table that hold my Project Life journal cards and the other elements I use. Having them out in the open and ready to use helps me to just get the stories onto paper.
• When I have less than 10 photos to print at a time, I'm using my Cannon Selphy. More than 10 though, I'm uploading them to Walgreens and Jon picks them up on his way home from work. 

*This piece of Ellie loving to look through Project Life, this is what keeps me going with this project. She likes to look through it over and over again telling me the stories she sees in the pages. She points out the things that she used when she was "Baby Ellie" and names her Grandparents and her Uncle Matt and Kelly and talks about the time we played with the blue ball with her aunt and uncle in Wisconsin. It is awesome.

And I do this because I remember when I was a little one and how I used to look through the albums my mom had filled with photos from days when I was "Baby Elizabeth" and then suddenly "Big Sister Elizabeth" and I know that I will look through these albums in that same way and gather the stories to me again.

this is not...

this is not a post about how not being enough is tugging on me today.

this is not a post about how sometimes i think about how small ellie jane's heart was inside her nine-pound body when she had surgery and the way that thought almost pushes me into a ball in the corner but then she will run into the room and laugh and insist on putting on her sparkle shoes so she can run outside and i find my breath again.

this is not a post about how the labels that float across the universe and into my mind feel like leaden balloons that won't let me dance the way my heart and legs long to dance.

this is not a post about how i almost forgot to pay attention because i was so wrapped up in the old story of feeling forgotten.

this is not a post about how i've had two horrible nightmares in the last two weeks that i still can't shake since they seemed so real.

this is not a post about how much i'm looking forward to staying at the ACE hotel in Portland next weekend and how i am slowly realizing i have an entire day to myself on monday with nothing on the agenda until the evening.

this is not a post about how i'm having first day of school jitters about the world domination summit.

this is not a post about how much i can't wait to show you the photographs vivienne took at the your story retreat.

this is not a post about how i might be the only person excited that it hasn't been hot this summer (yet).

this is not a post about how much i love my new haircut.

this is not a post about how much iced tea i plan to drink from my huge starbucks cup this summer.

this is not a post about how sometimes i talk about simple silly things because all i really want to talk about is grief.

this is not a post about how much i wish you would remember. 

this is a post about how important it is to do things together, just the two of us. even if one of us is working on her half of the table. even if we are annoying each other. even if the restaurant is so loud we can't have a conversation. even if i might get more "done" alone. even if he would have rather gone to a movie. yes. this is a post to remind me to create more space for two people who need to see one another.

a girl and her vintage suitcases

Taking Ellie out into the world where there are lots of people can be intense sometimes as it can be with toddlers. She wants to walk where she wants to walk and she mostly wants to just keep walking to see all that she can see and find lots of grates in the street and sidewalk and not spend time looking through adorable booths of very good things at the Fremont Market where we went this morning at my request because I wanted crepes.

But then I spotted a few flowered oh my goodness those colors! vintage suitcases tucked under some vintage clothes in a booth. And suddenly we very much agreed on stopping to look around.

After I bought them, she would not let them go. 

As in a "we are going to wait for daddy in this spot and I am in charge of the suitcases so don't you touch them I really mean it" sort of not letting them go.

As in an "I see you looking at them because you think I am in the way but I am setting up my own booth right here thank you very much" sort of way.

With several minutes of "I think some other people might see how awesome these are and try to take them so I am just going to keep my eyes on them and stand right here." 

And then she insisted on carrying them to the car.

Gosh I love this kid.

And oh how I love these suitcases! Found them in a booth run by this delightful Etsy seller who I found out has a little "only open on some Saturdays" shop here in Tacoma that I can't wait to visit soon. 

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.