Project Life 2015: Week 15, Easter Sunday

Here's the beginning of the monster, 10 page week...

I had a vision for these pages.  I wanted the photos to be the focus, and I wanted to use an actual "Easter" kit versus the cutesy, dyed eggs and bunny kits (I love those too and have use for them, but on this particular set of pages I wanted something different).  Amber LaBau's Easter Morn cards were perfect.  The subtle color scheme complemented the colors in the sunrise over the water.  I took a bunch of photos myself, but I was also able to pull some cool ones from our church's Facebook page. I love how the shots taken from above put everything in perspective.

Supplies (links on pinterest):

This post is part of the project life link up on the Day to Day blog.

Project Life: Week 14, part two

I'M CAUGHT UP AGAIN!!!!

I am so incredibly excited about that!  I followed my plan I posted last week and now I'm back to working current!  I'm so thrilled!

So now to get caught back up on posting...

Not only am I caught up, but I'm just a couple of weeks away from ordering my first book of the year!  I'm excited to print three times this year instead of just two.  I think that was part of the motivation to get my act together.  Plus we sat down over the weekend and went over the rough plan for the next few months and things are seriously crazy between now and school starting in the fall.  It's a good crazy though, filled with lots of fun things and travel, but it's still crazy. And a perfect recipe for getting behind with PL.  I'm going to have to up my project life plan a bit in order to get through it all without totally losing it.  Last summer was pretty busy with lots of trips, but I always had a bit of downtime between them.  This year, several of them are back to back which could prove difficult to find time.  Thank goodness I have a laptop!  I fought that change a couple of years ago.  Jeff bought it for me and I refused to use it for several months... I loved my desktop and didn't want to change.  Now, I can't imagine life without my macbook.  Well... I should probably stop worrying about how behind I'll be this summer and just enjoy being caught up again for the moment!  :-)

Supplies (links on pinterest):

The planner and the plan...

I'm behind.... way behind (for me anyway).  But I have a plan (and a brand new planner!), so I think I'm under control.

First off, the planner...

A few weeks ago, someone posted about a sale on Erin Condren planners.  I had been eyeing them for a while, but couldn't justify the cost when I didn't know how or even if I would use one.  But 40% off a 2015 planner and an extra $10 off I got from going through a referral code, it brought the price down to the point that I was willing to take a chance.  (If you're interested in doing this too... I'm not entirely sure I had to go through a referral code - the links above include mine - but that's how I did it, and it worked.  You will make an account and then shortly after you will receive an email with a $10 off code to use on your order.  Mine did not show up immediately, so give it a few minutes.)

So, it came last week and I just then decided to look into how I wanted to use it.  I do truly adore all of the cute decorated planner pages I've been seeing, but first, I really did need to figure out what worked best for me.  I started by watching the video by Jennifer McGuire...


This was a great starting point for me.  And I plan on using some of her ideas once I really get going.

Like most, the divisions of morning, day and night don't really work for me.  However, having multiple sections each day does work for me... I just needed to figure out what my divisions should be.  Last week I tried out the following:

morning = Jeff and I (more details for me, high level for Jeff)
day = the kids' activities
night = never really fleshed that one out, started out being sort of a to do list and ended up a general notes area
lines = meant to be day details

This really didn't work.  The section for Jeff and I stayed mostly blank, which seemed like a waste of space.  And I didn't capture what I really needed.  I was figuring out that, although I do need a planner, what I really need is more of a PL diary.  Have I mentioned how far behind I am with Project Life?  Well... in case I haven't, I really am behind!  I needed a section to jot down stories or events, and I needed a place to record photos that were taken.  As everyone gets more involved with my PL, the more difficult it can be to stay organized!  It's actually a really good thing, so I'm not complaining.  But with photos from Jeff, Clara, Alex and screenshots or downloads from social media, my photos in my photo stream get way out of order sometimes.  I was able to keep it somewhat under control when I was working current, but now that I'm behind, it gets really confusing.

So, new plan for this week...

morning = all activities/appointments
day = details of the day and/or stories
night = photos taken
lines = haven't had a reason to use them yet this week

So far, this is working.  I'm going to probably give it at least one more week before I start making labels to cover morning, day and night.

I've found that I like preparing my calendar on Sunday for the week ahead.  It helps me really think about our schedule and get mentally prepared.  But I do think that I need to find a way to temporarily schedule things on the calendar in advance.  I think that's where the dots that Jennifer has in the video above will come in handy.  I would be able to put the next orthodontist appointment, for example, on the right day, but move it if necessary and remove the label altogether when I transfer the info directly onto the page when I prepare that week.  And maybe, someday, I'll start playing with all of the cute stuff I see... but then again, maybe not and I'll just be thrilled that I'm somewhat organized!  :-)

And, not only am I organizing my notes for getting caught up, I'm also organizing my photos.  The good news is that I'm finally current with all of my photos on templates!  The bad news is that week 15 exploded and with that and weeks 14 and 16, I have FOURTEEN pages to finish up!  FOURTEEN... sigh.

Hopefully the fact that I plan to print my first book of the year after I finish up with April will be a motivator to plow through those pages!!

Project Life 2015: Week 14, part one

Still running behind, but I feel like the catching up thing is going to happen soon, especially since I've taken ZERO photos this week so far.  I may have my first one spread week in quite a while!  Not sure if that is actually a good thing... but given that it makes me feel less behind, I'll go with it being a good thing :-)

Here's the first half of week 14...

For this spread, I used some of the new Quick Pockets by Just Jaimee and Lynnette W.  They have open spots for photos, but if you slip a piece of grid paper in there, they become journaling cards!  I also "borrowed" a few cards from the Ready to Go template sets.  They're grouped together on the templates so they were easy to drag over onto my pages I was putting together.  Just a little resizing and they were ready to go!

Supplies (links on pinterest)...

Check out the other pages on Day to Day's Project Life Monday link up!

Project Life 2015: The rest of week 13

I finally finished up the second half of week 13.  One of my favorite things about the Storyteller collections by Just Jaimee is all of the add-ons that are released throughout the month.  They make the kit all new again!  The stacked pocket cards were just what I needed to finish the week up.  I wanted to use Storyteller Raine for a somewhat consistent look to the week, but I needed new pieces to play with.  And I definitely needed more journal card choices, since I spread the photos over four pages, I ended up with lots of gaps to fill.

 Supplies I used (links on pinterest)...

Project Life 2015: Week 13, part one

I've hit my first slump of the year.  I have one half of week 13 done, but not the second half.  I have everything laid out, but I just can't pull it together.  I also have at least three 2010 pages in progress that I can't get finished for some reason either.  (And I'm not even going to go into the the other 3 extra spreads I'm completely ignoring for my 2015 book... sigh.)

So, instead I'll celebrate what I do have finished!  Here's the first half of week 13...

I do need to get my act together though... I've decided to print three times this year, so I'm just about a month away from ordering my first book of the year!  I had originally planned to print January through the end of school, summer break and then start of school through the end of December.  But with the added snow/cold weather days, Alex is out of school a good week after Clara and Clara goes back to school nearly two weeks before Alex does in the fall.  It made it hard to nail down exactly where to split the books, so I'm doing (roughly) thirds instead.

Here are the supplies I used (links on pinterest)....