Project Life- My first page

Hi Friends! I so very happy today as I started my new job. YAY!!! I'm one of those ladies who would rather be working than staying at home. And I am blessed to have a profession that I love. So being back at work is a real blessing for me...I think my family might have been worried that I was going a little "nutso". But enough about work...let's get to some fun!

Today I want to share with you my first "Project Life- My Way" page. I know it looks different that other Project Life pages that are being created, so let me explain.

My goal for project life is to document through pictures & journal notes our daily lives. I've made some decisions about how I can best keep up with Project Life & enjoy the process. Some of the decisions or 'rules' I established for myself include:
1) Use only 4X6 photos- I will photo edit them on the computer but I am not going to crop, or use many different sizes of photos. I've used the beautiful sketches with the many different sized photos on a page & it makes it too complicated for me & takes forever to complete pages.
2) Use pre-existing supplies. That is the main reason that my pages look so different. I am not buying the kits or the special page protectors. I need to use what I have & boy do I have a lot of scrapbook supplies. I'm mainly a card maker & a wanna-be scrapbooker so over the years I've bought 12X12 pads of paper, kits, stickers, letters, you name it, I've probably got it. It is all waiting for me to use it. So that is what I am going to do. Please note this is not a hard & fast rule...I did buy some cute chevron paper in different colors that I'll use for cards too. And probably some journal cards later. But Im not buying another kit until I've used a lot of what I already have.
3) Journal every day. I am keeping my entries in my i-phone as an appointment entry for each day. I write a little bit. I will later hand-write these on journal cards when I am putting the pages together with the pictures. I know that this is double work (which I am usually very opposed to) but for now it works as I always have my phone with me. If I try to complete a journal card each day to go directly into onto the page, I won't be successful as I won't have the journal cards where I need them.
4) Each month has a color scheme. That color scheme will be used on all the pages & I will often be using the same designer papers & embellishments from the same line or kits. This will keep it easy. For January, it's BLUE- my fav!! February will be red & pink. I'll set up my station with the supplies for the month.
5) ENJOY the process!! This is not going to be stressful! I am going to be forgiving of myself if things don't work out 100% perfect. I WILL keep evaluating how I can reach my goal of documenting our daily lives & adapt my way to make "Project Life" a reality.

It is close to the end of the month & so far, I've kept up with picture taking & journaling but all the pages are not together. This is mainly because I don't have printed photos- I am not happy with my photo printer output. I am investigating some alternatives to printing at home. 

Thanks for stopping by & have a great day! Hugs, Marilyn

Project Life - My Method

Happy New Year, friends!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. We certainly did; the DDs (dear daughters) were home from college & we had lots of fun togetherness.

We're getting back to our non- holiday lives; we've packed away the Christmas decor. Im getting back to my healthy eating & exercise routines. Today I want to share with you one of my 2013 goals: Document our life through photos & journaling- A Project Life Goal. 

I attempted this goal in 2010, but I wasn't able to keep up. So I thought long & hard about why it didn't work back then & how I could make it easy on myself.  I'm not into berating myself over "failures" but rather look at them as opportunities. How can I change & adapt the project & myself so that I can be successful? It's always helpful for me to be crystal clear about my goal & define the parameters. 

One of my first realizations was that I needed to have a dedicated space in my studio for Project Life.  A space that I can leave partially finished pages to return to later to finish. Then I can work in small blocks of time & reduce stress. That space needed to have an organization system for journal notecards, paper, journaling & date stamps, pens & embellishments so that things are handy & neat; if it is too messy then stress levels increase & production decreases. 

So today I want to show you my first step to my goal. My first project was to clean & organize my studio to make a work station for Project Life. I cant believe it took all day but then I also cleaned a corner piled with supplies & re-organized several other spots in the studio. Below is a picture of my Project Life work station. 
As you can see, I have a nice sunshiny place- two windows in the studio that bring in morning light. The work island is big & in other areas I have my cricut and big shot.  

I put a self healing mat on the work surface & directly behind it is a desktop organizer. Here I am keeping my main supplies. 12 x 12 paper, 6 x 6 designer paper packs, stamps, journal tags, some paper & other flat embelishments and pens. To the left is a tray to house washi tape & glue, date stamp, . To the right are a few collections of embellishments that I plan to use. Also to the left is a small container to house completed journal cards that are awaiting their corresponding photos that need printing. To the left is a medium sized bucket that isn't dedicated to Project Life but works well in the space. The bucket holds my newest stamps & the next upcoming holiday stamps; it has some Valentine's stamps & embellishments now. 

In my next Project Life post, I will share my adaptions to the traditional Project Life. And soon I'll have a card to share. 

Have a great day! Hugs!!