Project Life 2014: Week 43

Week 43 was a week with quite a few photos, but then not quite as many as I would have liked :-)  But such is life with teenagers... they do so much without you and don't take photos of what they do (well... besides selfies from the girl).

Here is week 43...

Clara turned 13 during this week so I'm working on an insert (yes, another insert!) with the pics from her actual birthday.  It's crazy how long her birthday will last though :-)  Week 41 had pics from her birthday with my parents, week 43 has her actual birthday, week 44 will have her birthday with Jeff's parents and week 45 will have her birthday party with her friends (she had to wait for it until after her upcoming dance performance).

Project Life 2014: Week 42 insert

So, it's done.  I really like how it turned out and I think I'm going to be okay with how it looks with the pages I did yesterday.  They look very dark and heavy here, but the blank half will be trimmed off once the page is printed.

Here is my insert for week 42 of the fashion show Jeff and Clara went to...

I used the same kit that I used on the main pages for week 42.  I was so pleased to see how elegant some of the pieces of that kit could be to match the fashion show photos.  It's a very versatile kit... from apple picking to fashion show!

Project Life 2014: Week 42

Okay... so this week technically isn't done yet.  I had so many random photos this week that I had more than what would fit on the two pages.  It took me a while to figure out which event would get separated out, but I finally decided that the fashion show Jeff and Clara attended on Friday, should be the insert.  I haven't even started it yet, so I hope I can make it flow with these pages.  I think it's a bit funny that in my last post I was lamenting my lack of inserts in book two so far and then, boom!, the very next spread I worked on required an insert!  After the previous week where I barely had enough photos to do my pages, too many photos was a good problem to have.

Supplies used (links on pinterest)...

Project Life 2014: Book One

Since I'm caught up on posting pages, I thought I would finally post about my book one for 2014.  I really, truly love having my actual pages in hand to look through.  I flip through my digital book online on Shutterfly all of the time, but nothing beats the actual physical book.  I was disappointed at first last year that I wouldn't be able to print just one book for the whole year (I was going over the page limit), but now I don't mind at all and have even considered printing quarterly because a whole year (and maybe even six months) just seems to long to wait!  :-)

So here it is...

I like my cover, but next year, I'm going to be more proactive about my cover.  Every time I've printed, the cover is the last thing I think about and I end up just throwing something together in order to get my book ordered before my coupon expires (like actually watching the clock... that's how close I am some times!).

The one thing I messed up on with the cover was that I did not make the photos of the kids even.  Never even thought about this, but the first thing Clara did when she saw the book was count how many photos she was in versus Alex (?!?!?).  What the girl needs to realize though is that if we counted all of the photos within the book, she would win by a mile.  Given that Alex is off a lot doing his own thing and he and his friends aren't that into taking photos.  :-/

I'm really pleased with my book this year...

Things did print closer to the edge than I would have liked, but nothing got cut off...

I reduced everything on my background by 98% before flattening my page, but I should have reduced it a little more.  It showed this way on the Shutterfly site, so I should have known to reduce it more, but I decided not to.  I'm leaving it at 98% for book two, just because I'm too lazy to correct the pages I had already uploaded and the books might as well be consistent.

Thanks to inspiration from the Family Bees blog, I decided to try a few "inserts"...

I should have taken a before photo, but the "inserts" were just full 12x12 pages that were blank on half the page.  After a week of having the book in hand, I finally worked up the nerve to trim off the blank portion.

It went really well, with no issues.  Jenny of Family Bees cut hers with scissors, I used my paper trimmer.  I was a little nervous, so I left a little room on my trimmed edge in case I needed to clean up any mistakes.  I didn't end up needing to clean anything up, so I have a wider trim on that edge, but that's ok.  I used that extra edging to attach my washi tape tab to (idea also from the Family Bees blog).  It gives people something to grab onto when turning that half page.

Just a random page from the book...

And my other "insert" from this book...

I'm really in love with these "inserts"!  I'm a little sad that I haven't done any yet in book two.  I'm not sure why I haven't.  I may have to correct that soon!  :-)

Project Life 2014: Week 41

I really dreaded working on this week once I figured out how few photos I had to work with.  But then I got started and it all came together pretty well!  Most of the photos I did have were from doing attempting a photo a day challenge, so they were really random which made putting these pages together even more daunting.  In the end though, I was very pleasantly surprised with how this week turned out.

Now I'm caught up again (unless you count week 37, which I'm still avoiding... sigh).

Project Life 2014: Week 40

I wasn't sure where it was going when I started, but week 40 turned out to be one of my all time favorite weekly spreads!  I used the exact same kit I used in week 38, yet it looks completely different.

It was an exciting week, especially Saturday with Clara's performance earlier in the day and the concert at our house that night, so thankfully it was a week with lots of photos.  Week 41 was a totally different story though... I don't have a lot of photos to work with and I'm dreading getting started on it.  Ugh.  I have so many photo projects to get done and I'm just not feeling them at the moment.  It's a dark, gloomy, rainy day, so maybe it's a good day to work on them!

Wish me luck!  :-)

Project Life 2014: Week 39

And here's week 39...

For those of you worried about Alex not making the robotics team, check out the first page of this layout... he got asked the join the team!  It was definitely a learning experience for him.  The day after he got the news about not making the team, we sat down with him.  We asked him just how important being on the team was to him.  He told us that it was very important, it was what he wanted to do 100%.  So, with that being the case, we told him that we would advise him to contact the coach, thank him for the opportunity, highlight that although he was disappointed, he knew it was a tough decision and then finally ask what he should be working on for next year's try-outs.  I was impressed, the coach got back to him right away and they emailed back and forth a bit about some things to work on.  Then, a week after robotics started, he got asked to join the team!  Now did his emails to the coach about wanting to work towards next year have anything to do with him being offered a spot... we'll probably never know.  But I'm guessing they didn't hurt anything, and at the least, even if he hadn't been given this opportunity, he would have known what he needed to work on for the following year.

And let me just say, Alex has loved every single second of being on the robotics team!  We had worried a bit that it wouldn't live up to his expectations or that it would be too much with his homework load and School of Rock (robotics is 10+ hours a week)... but oddly enough, it's made him more efficient with his school work.  He also really likes being on a mixed grade team... his particular team has freshmen to seniors on it.  And now that the team has spent so much time together, they're starting to talk about doing things together outside of robotics, like going to the football games after practice on Fridays.  It's been a really good thing for him!

Project Life 2014: Week 38

 Still avoiding week 37, so we're moving on to week 38...

This week contained an interesting PL dilemma for me.  I was still running a bit behind when I did this one.  I had placed the photos about Clara running for class representative and had most of the page done when they had the elections and she did not win.  At this point I wasn't sure what to do.  Should I take them out and pretend it never happened or leave it alone?  As you can tell, I decided to leave it alone in this particular case.  Clara was totally fine after the elections (she was running against one of her best friends and they knew it could really go either way) and she was proud of the posters that she had made.  A week before, Alex had a somewhat similar situation which I handled completely differently.  One of the main reasons Alex picked the high school that he did, was because of their robotics team.  He has been obsessed with being part of it from day one.  Well... in previous years they pretty much took everyone because it was just starting up, but this year they had a huge turnout for the informational meetings and had to do try-outs to narrow down the 70+ applicants to around 20 team members.  This was all Alex wanted.... and he did not make it.  He was devastated.  It really hit him hard, so there is no mention of it on the pages for week 37 (oh wait... I haven't actually done those yet, but I have no intention of including this).  Each of these situations is different in regards to the emotions around the event.  Alex's try-outs aren't going to be on a page because things were a little raw... I included Clara's prep and posters on this week's pages because she was proud of those, but I didn't bring up the fact that she lost on the following week's pages.  I guess that's the interesting thing about working current... it's harder to censor what you're including.  If prep for some event is a big part of your week, it gets included, even if the outcome in the next week or two isn't what you were expecting.  If I would work with a bit of a delay, I could better control what does and doesn't get included.  Being current is important to me, so I'll just have to keeping working on finding the right balance.  I don't want to make everything seem shiny and perfect in my books, because life isn't, but I also don't want to include painful things that would make me children not want to look through these books in the future.

On a happier topic... take a peek at the top right corner of the first page!  Yep... that's my book for the first half of the year!  I'm totally in love with it and I can't wait to do a post about it! (right after I finish week 37... sigh)

Project Life 2014: Week 36

Here's my layout of Hop-Along and Lefty on their first day of school :-)  They were quite a pair!

This week was the first casualty of being behind with layouts.  Some weeks I just don't remember to take photos and I don't have much for my weekly layout.  But when I'm working current, I catch it right away and remind myself to take more photos the next week.  When I'm 3 or so weeks behind (like I was when I was working on this one), I don't catch it right away and have several weeks that are light on photos.  At this time I'm working current, EXCEPT I still haven't gone back on finished up week 37.  I skipped it because it was so light on photos that I wasn't sure what to do and skipped it while I tried to round up photos from other people I could use.  I did manage to find a few more, but it just would have been easier to have taken more photos myself.  I'm currently making another attempt at the Fat Mum Slim instagram photo a day challenge, so I at least have some filler options.  If you want to see my photos, the link to my instagram account is on the right.

Project Life 2014: Week 35, part two

So, what do you do when both of your kids are broken?  You go to an amusement park, of course!!

We've been talking about going to Michigan's Adventure for years since we drive past the exit all of the time on our way to our place in Michigan.  It has just never worked out to go.  I wasn't sure how much fun they would have with their injuries, but we decided to go for it anyway.  Turns out that they had a blast!!  And thanks to the waterproof cast cover we had bought for Alex, he was able to ride a bunch of the water rides too!

While we were waiting for the kids to ride their last rides of the day, Jeff was looking on his phone for somewhere nearby to eat on our way home.  One of the things that came up on the list was Dog 'n Suds.  Jeff kind of skimmed over since he'd never heard of it... but I remembered going to one as a kid.  I was really hoping that it was the same type of drive-in that I remembered!  We were not disappointed!  It was a totally old school Dog 'n Suds!  This one had the added bonus of being right on the water, so we pulled into the last spot in the row and ate at a picnic table by the dock.  We just had to get our root beer in actual frosty glass mugs.  Let me tell you... it tasted so good!  

That was our last big hurrah of the summer at Bearski.  Friday was spent baking cookies and other treats to deliver to the staff at Crystal Mountain.  We love our CM family and the kids always try to make them treats before we leave at the end of summer.

Main kit used on this spread (link on pinterest)...

Project Life 2014: Week 35, part one

And now for broken bone #2.  Three days after Clara's trip to the ER and just a few hours after grandpa and grandma had left, we got the call.  Alex was out downhill mountain biking and had crashed.  His wrist ended up broken in two places... but he had been having so much fun, he still had a smile on his face!

So with two broken kids, we had to get a bit creative with our activities.  The two main things to do around our place in Michigan during the summer are to hike or some sort of water activity.  Those were both out with a broken wrist and a broken toe.  We did a little back to school shopping in Traverse City on the day of Alex's appointment with the specialist on Monday.  On Tuesday, we decided to go to Frankfort to have ribs at a place we had just heard about and see a movie at the cool old movie theater.  Wednesday we finally made it to the Cherry Hut for lunch... we usually go several times a summer, but this was our first visit this year.  That evening we took a chairlift ride to the top of the mountain.  The rest of the week is a separate layout because of our big adventure on Thursday. We let the broken children (specifically the boy one) have one special request and we went to a place we've been talking about going to for a few years.  

Main kit used (links on pinterest)....

Project Life 2014: Week 34, part two

And now here's the rest of week 34...

The cousins left Thursday afternoon and grandpa and grandma showed up that evening.  A few hours later we were in the ER with Clara... sigh.

The first broken bone of the summer (yes... there's more to come).  The story is on the layout, but it's tiny on here.  So basically... back in June at Nationals in Myrtle Beach, Clara jumped into the pool at the hotel.  BUT, it was shallower than she thought and she smacked her toes on her right foot into the bottom of the pool.  Her second toe swelled a little, turned reddish purple and hurt some, but it was nationals, so she had to keep dancing.  We honestly did not think it was broken, just bruised and a little scraped up from hitting the pool bottom.  It was fairly quickly back to normal, so she just kept going with dance, tumbling and general summer stuff.  Flash forward to that Thursday night... she was just standing there at the pool talking to me and she leaned forward onto the toes of her right foot.  She suddenly turned bright red and big huge Clara tears started rolling down her cheeks (and those of you who know her, know what I'm talking about with the "Clara tears").  I seriously thought she was being dramatic, because she was just standing there!  But then she showed me her toe and it had doubled in size already and was dark purple.  So it was off to the ER.  Their diagnosis was that she had fractured her toe before in June, it had never healed properly and her small movement that day was enough to pop that piece of bone off.  Lovely.  Three weeks in her stylish new shoe and a recheck with an orthopedic doctor back home to determine the full course of action. Good times.

So, as you can probably tell, the photos in the layout are way out of order.  I really don't know what happened when I was adding them, but given that layout encompasses just three days, I'm trying not to get too worked up about it.  Something else I'm trying to let go on is including pictures of myself in my PL book.  That's something I really wanted to work on for this year.  I was doing better and including more photos than usual, but they were only ones I thought were pretty good photos.  Now I'm trying to take that a step further and include the not so great ones... the candids, the action shots, etc.  While we were playing bean bag one night, Alex decided to pick up my camera, switch it to auto and take photos while we played.  I'm not a huge fan of the photo I decided to use, but it's real.  It's me, playing bean bag with my girl being a goof in the background.  Being the primary photographer for this project, I don't have a lot of these types of photos but I'm trying to let go and use then when I do.

Main kit for this spread (links on Pinterest)...

Project Life 2014: Week 34, part one

Week 34 was a crazy week, so it's a two parter.  The first half of the week, Jeff's brother and his family were in for a visit.  The cousins were all together, so there were lots of fun adventures and lots of fun photos...

Here is the main kit for this spread (links on pinterest)....

Project Life 2014: Week 33

Week 33 was a week at home after our big trip, but before heading to our place in Michigan.

Here's the main kit I used on these pages (links on pinterest)...

Project Life 2014: the rest of week 32

I'm a little sad that I'm done with my travel journal posts... I really enjoyed that project.  But I'm getting over it by planning a December Daily album based on the same idea.  Let's see if I actually follow through or not as I failed at it last year and have a ton of other photo projects in the works.

 Here's the rest of our week in Missouri after our big road trip...

And the supplies (links on pinterest)...

Road Trip 2014: Day 11

The last day...

Just a lot of driving, so not many photos and no brochures :-(

It was torture!  We stopped at the Missouri welcome center to use the restrooms and they had these big, beautiful brochure displays!  We had gotten so accustomed to scouring those for travel journal material, that we just stood there staring longingly at them... wishing we were still road tripping.  I still haven't completely broken that habit.  It makes me want to do a regular smash book style journal so I can do this all year!

The last of the trip project life pages...