Project Life: The Final Pages

 Since I started the year with a half week, I ended with one as well...

I am so happy to have seen this project through!  I cannot wait to have it printed and actually touch the pages!

So, with 2013 complete, I'm going to talk a little about how I felt 2013 went as my first PL year.

1.  I loved keeping it simple with one template for the whole year.  In order to be successful and not get overwhelmed right off the bat, this really helped.  Regardless of the photos that I had (or didn't have), I opened the same file every week and got started.

2.  I now have my family pretty well Project Life trained.  The photos on my pages didn't come just from me.  Jeff, Alex, Clara, dance teachers, other parents, grandparents, etc. all contributed to my pages.  None of them bat an eye when I ask for a photo to use for PL and some even just automatically send me photos.

3.  As much as I was disappointed at first, I really like printing two books.  It was really nice to be able to see my pages in print mid-year.  It was a big motivator at a time when my momentum was waning a bit.

4.  I also liked (for the first year) having the same basic layout each week with the title card.  Again, it simplified things at a time when I was figuring a bunch of other stuff out.

5.  As much as I resisted, I'm glad that through PL I have been in more photos this past year.  I even found myself planning a family photo for my 2014 title page.  Wouldn't have even dreamed of that a year ago.  Doing PL have made me realize how important to document the everyday, not just the "perfect" photos.  And with that... I'm in more photos :-)

6.  The times I thought I didn't have anything worthy of PL, I just wasn't looking hard enough.  Anything is fair game for PL.  Years from now, what I thought was a boring filler, is (hopefully) going to be a fun reminder of our everyday life.

7.  I thought about making a switch to a Mon-Sun format for 2014, but I have decided that I really like Sun-Sat and will stick with it.  It does break up our weekends, but I'm okay with that.  A lot of our activities happen on the weekends, so to me it takes the pressure off of the week days.  I can sandwich a few weekday photos between two larger activity days.  I'm afraid, if I did Mon-Sun format my book would morph into a year of weekends book.  On the occasions that we have a weekend trip or something else that I don't want to break up, I don't mind having a separate two page weekend spread.  Another bonus of the two books... I have plenty of room for extra pages!

Next up... my title page and my plans for my 2014 book!!