Project Life (and a giveaway)

 

Happy Tuesday everyone!   How is the first week of Project Life coming along?   We completed Week One a few days ago and it's now time to put everything together-- this is the fun part!    I am currently putting together the first week of 2012 (which I will share next Tuesday), and also spending a bit of time "catching up" on a few of the remaining weeks of 2011.  

One suggestion I would make as many of you start Project Life for the first time, is to work on the most current week.   That has always worked very well for me.  There are certainly times when life gets busy and a week goes by where a Project Life layout is not completed-- and that is okay!   I suggest picking up at the current time and going back later and filling in the gaps.  You will likely be more inspired when the memories are fresh, and less likely to fall further behind.. 

I usually work about a week out-- meaning once the week is complete, I spend the following week working on putting together the past week's layout, and then post it on the following Tuesday.  I have a few weeks in 2011 that I need to complete, so I have been thinking a lot recently on how to fill in the gaps.

This particular week was the week of December 12-18th, almost a month ago. I (thankfully) had plenty of photos due to the fact it was right before Christmas, but I wanted to make sure to include stories as well.  One idea I had was to just open up my calendar (I am old school and still write everything down in a written calendar) and take a photo of that particular week.  That is my "date" photo and also included a brief summary of the happenings of the week (based off of what was written in my calendar).

Let me tell you a little secret: the instax of my daughter on that first page was not actually taken that exact day (gasp!).  I know it was a recent photo (due to the Christmas tree she is standing in front of), so I used it as a visual and told a story of what did happen on that actual day.   I don't do this often, but when you are filling in the the gaps I think it's okay to include items that will help you tell the story of the week.

For this particular week I also included a few "everyday/routine" items and photos.  Photos of my daughter watching Clifford in the morning, a photo of my clean scrap desk (okay, maybe that doesn't happen everyday:), a photo of my kids helping get dinner ready at our weekly family dinner, and the story and my thoughts on sending/receiving Christmas cards.  These are all items that are more story focused and not so much "what we did"-- great options for when you need to "fill in the gaps" and catch up.

I also used items like Twitter, Facebook, and my iPhone photos to remind me of stories, quotes, and happenings of the week.  It's amazing what you can find and remember about a particular week if you dig a little.

Congrats Janamk, you are the winner of last weeks giveaway!  Please send an email to info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information.
Name:
Address:
Contest:  January 3 Project Life

We have another giveaway today!!  For a chance to win a $25 Elle's Studio prize pack, leave us a comment here and let us know what your favorite item is from Elle's new release!!   My favorite item are the new Daily Tidbits--- so perfect for Project Life!

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories.  Photo pockets used in my Project Life album are created by Becky and can be found here.  You can read of all the Elle's Studio Project Life posts here.

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