Now this is what I have been holding out on – the main reason why I failed to blog on the 1st day of September with my new goals and project for the month. I have been catching up on Project Life!
And yes, I am all caught up – ALL 35 weeks of it. And it didn’t take me long to catch up.
And you wouldn’t even believe how far I lagged behind. To be honest, I was only active with Project Life up until Week 9. After that, I stopped putting everything together. I was overwhelmed, it was my first time to do a hybrid version of scrapbooking (I have only been scrapping digitally ever since) and I realized that I wanted to do include so many things that I got headaches just trying to complete a weekly spread. I also disliked how it was taking up most of my Sundays. A big challenge for me was developing the pictures. I couldn’t find a printing service that I liked and I felt that it was so expensive. So I stopped. I had every good intention of catching up – since I didn’t stop taking pictures. However, most of them were through my iPhone. I didn’t journal extensively. Everything was really falling behind.
Come April, the start of summer season in our country, I just didn’t think about it anymore. I was a bit disappointed with myself because I started so strong with Project Life only to quit at Week 9, barely two months from when at started. It was a far cry from my PAD 2010 Challenge where at least I finished up until May.
The epiphany that I CAN CATCH UP didn’t happen until June, when my eldest asked me, “Mom, why aren’t there new pictures in our orange album? I loved reading the stories in there.” A light bulb went in my head. THIS IS WHY I STARTED PROJECT LIFE – to make it interactive for the kids, real-time in a way. Make them involved.
So come June, I stared at the pictures in my iPhoto – I was pretty good importing them by date and by week (Maybe at the back of my mind I was hoping I can still catch up). And then I remembered I had the Momento app which slurped my twitter, FB, blog and Instagram feeds. (It was such a blessing I’m active in social networking) So the very first thing I did was update my Momento and when the feeds were updated, I exported it (using the per file save) and then organized them by week. It was fun somehow reading everything and remembering.
So I worked. BACKWARDS. I started on Week 24 (the week I decided to catch up), and found my way back, FINALLY last week. It only took me roughly a month, give or take, to catch up – I worked on it haltingly, one week straight, then two weeks of no work, then work on it again.
But I did it.
I cannot be prouder of myself!
Here’s what I did:
1. First, I used a notebook to plan all my spreads. Then a wrote on a piece of paper all the weeks I needed to do and slowly crossed off each one as I finished.
2. I printed them using Artscow. It was the cheapest alternative I can find and I had to wait 2-3 weeks for it to arrive. My EQ was really tested. But It was all worth it.
3. When I was catching up I relied heavily on blog posts, IG feeds and tweets. I decided to do weekly features too, to make things easier for me. I included blog posts and inserted them in 6×12 pages, I got FB status updates and twitter posts, did some QUOTABLE QUOTES (He said, she said) and a week in review. One of the things I also did was highlight a weekly blog post on my main blog entitled Happy Thoughts. Then at the end of each month, I did a roundup and included a family picture of us from that month.
I will share more of the pictures once I try to find out how to take pictures of them properly.
4. From weeks 29 to present, I decided to use my handwriting in the albums to get a more personalized feel (and use the cards in the core kit). It made things a lot easier. Now instead of using post-its on the album sleeves to let me know which photos go where, I now see all the journaling and it makes me more excited.
Now I am all caught up – I figured I’d start sharing from Week 35 onwards, just not to bore you with stuff. If I get behind – then I can share past weekly spreads.
**I participated in Project Life Tuesday by the Mom Creative.*
- 7 Helpful Tips to Renovating Your Home Into an Office - May 25, 2023
- Alleviating Stress As A Woman Entrepreneur: Strategies For Success - May 16, 2023
- Innovative Ways To Enhance Your Business Protection - April 21, 2023
