Project Life 2012 - Week 2

I'm sticking with it! And I'm still LOVING IT! This is going to be another long post with lots of photos and blah blah, so prepare yourself! First off, here's a look at Week 2 as it will look inside my album (once I finally get my album), with the inserts in place - I have 2 inserts this week - you should be able to click on any photos to see them larger or read the journaling. {side note: links to all products can be found at the end of this post}


I was so excited that one of my favorite designers, Karen Lewis, released some fun new journaling cards last week that were the perfect size for Project life. I used both the Wellington Document Pack and Wellington Document Pack 2 as well as the full Wellington Designer Kit (for the number 2 and some random embellishments) this week. Here's a look at both the left and right pages with the inserts removed:

And how about a closer look at all of it? First, the left side of the page, which basically covers Sunday through Wednesday.

Because I seemed to have more to say this week than last, I couldn't fit my "Weekly Overview" onto one card, so I split it in half and put it on two cards. A look at the first half pretty much sums up the left side of the page, except I didn't mention that amazing full rainbow I caught over our house after dropping Dean off at school Wednesday morning. The photo is probably self-explanatory though.

The first insert for this week is actually a 8.5x11 insert that I just cut down to the size I needed, then used my sewing machine to close up the right side, leaving the top open. I slipped in part of Dean's Kindergarten Progress Report from school, which we received on Tuesday. The front has a really cute self portrait. I added some journaling to include a snippet of what his teacher had written on his more formal report card.

For the second insert, I used the Words and Photos 6x12 Layered Templates by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals), slipped into one of the 6x12 page protectors. There were a couple of longer stories from this week that I definitely wanted to remember and this was a great way to capture those memories. I added just a couple of applicable small photos to the top of the template. I slipped a painting Dean did on Friday night into the protector behind the template (and the back side), cutting it down to the right size. LOVE this.

And finally, the right side of the layout. We had to buy Dean new Keens this week and they arrived Thursday. A piece of the box made a nice insert. I finished a great book on Wednesday (Cleopatra's Daughter) and printed out a photo of that along with a "1 of 24" sentiment flag - you may remember from Week 1 that I set a goal to read 24 books in 2012. I also created a little pull-out envelope to hold some important receipts from this week (the Vitamixer, Dean's Keens, as well as a few other purchases for the house). We had a family game night Friday night and spent a fun afternoon at Kamehameha III Beach Park Saturday for a baby luau (first birthday party). I also captured a photo of Dean playing on one of the Kindle Fires this week and created a little collage of some of his favorite Kindle Apps, which I think will be fun to look back on years from now.

I thought I'd mention that I started participating in Cathy Zielske's Move More, Eat Well class this week. I'm not a very good student. I think it's hard for me to be motivated mostly because I don't need to lose weight. However, I definitely DO need to exercise more and eat a lot healthier than I do. I'm now 35 years old and starting to both look and feel my age, which I don't like. I also have a 5-year-old son who I probably need to start setting a better example for. So, yeah. Old habits die hard. And my theory is they die harder when there's very little extrinsic motivation (such as the need to lose weight) to kill them. (especially when it's not really socially acceptable for a thin girl to talk about these things as if they were a "struggle". I get that). Moving on.

And finally here's a closer look at that 2nd half of the "Weekly Overview" journaling card:


That about sums it up! I'm still keeping things pretty simple with this. I've found that I'm working on my layouts a little bit here and a little bit there throughout the week and that seems to be working out pretty well so far. I've been printing my photos at home, which I didn't think I was going to do because I worried about the print quality. There are a few photos that I love that I think I'll go ahead and have re-printed from Persnickety Prints, which is also where I'll be ordering my 6x12 templates from now on. I had the 6x12 insert from this week printed at Costco and it really looks terrible. The photos at the top are awful - they're so dark. I had it printed on a 12x12 sheet along with another 6x12 that was intended to go in front of my Title Page, but that page looked SO BAD that I actually threw it in the trash. The colors were so completely off that it was ridiculous - I should have returned it, but Costco is one of my least favorite places to go. Actually, maybe I should dig that print out of the trash and do a comparison post when I receive my new one from Persnickety (and then take them both in to Costco to show them how bad theirs is). We'll see. Anyway, I had a point with this rambling. Oh yeah. I seem to be someone who just works on Project Life a little bit every couple of days. When I have a photo or story I want to include, I go ahead and add it in rather than waiting until the end of the week. I keep seeing blog posts with all of these fancy planning pages and such and I'm just not putting that much thought or time into mine. This project for me is more about just getting it done and capturing my family's memories.

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