Project Life : Week 41

Week 41: October 7 - 13


Anaya had this Monday off school and then wasn't feeling well so she ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday - sinus infection. Justin blew a tire which we had been needing to replace anyway, so it just made that a little more urgent. And then it was the weekend! I played board games with my brother & parents.

I have an insert (the top two sections of a Design J photo pocket page) for some pictures of Claire & me at Deanna Rose Farmstead.


The last page is mostly about Sunday. I was planning to do some family pictures at a local park, but we still haven't gotten them done due to our crappy weather. My mom & I took Claire to look around the park to find some fun places to do them. And Claire played on the playground.

I have all my layouts completed through Week 44 (October 28 - November 3). I need to order my next set of pictures from Persnickety, but it sounds like their servers have been overloaded A LOT recently. So I may put it off until after Thanksgiving.

Project Life : Week 40

Week 40: September 30 - October 6


I love this project. I love that all of these pictures are off my computer and in an album.

On Monday, we got a couple of new fishes. I haven't written out the whole story yet, but we had two fish (well, we've had way more than that, but we'd kept two alive for a while) and Justin had decided we needed two more fish. So we went to PetCo and bought two fish. And one of our original fish was being aggressive (they are all mollies or platys, so not normally aggressive fish) and managed to kill off one of the new fish within two days. Instead of just leaving it at that and having three fish, and since the jerk was attempting to kill off the other new fish, Justin went back to PetCo and bought another new fish and another fish tank. Now the jerk is in his own little tank and we have three fish in our old tank.

I had a busy weekend, that hardly involved the children at all. On Friday, I took a half day and accompanied Claire's class to the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, although very tiring, particularly since I am pregnant. Then I went home, rested for a little bit, got Claire off the bus because it was Anaya's weekend with us so Justin was gone getting her. After they got back, I had to go pick up my brother and we went to the American Royal to eat BBQ. The company I work for has a party tent and Justin isn't really into BBQ or walking. Claire and I made a test batch of cookies (the actual cookies won't be needed for a while, and it was a new cookie cutter...), we made some halloween shaped cookies too that I let the girls decorate. Then, I went to a co-worker's wedding at this really neat event space downtown, The Guild. It was really nice.

And that was our week!

Project Life : Week 31

Summer was almost over this week.


We got Claire's haircut in preparation of school starting. Anaya returned to her mom's house after being with us for almost the entire month of July. Claire & I went to Deanna Rose Farmstead and a trip to the pool. Since it was the end of the month, it was time for our monthly pictures of Hudson. And my dad had his birthday.

Project Life : Week 29 and 30

Since I'm so far behind (sharing week 29 and it's currently week 43), I decided to share TWO weeks!

So, Week 29 should actually be July 15-21, but because of when we returned from our vacation on week 28, I just decided to have week 29 include the Saturday & Sunday of the week 28. It's all good anyways. As long as the pictures are in the album, that is all the is really important. Plus after all the picture taking while on vacation, I think I set my camera down and more or less forgot about it most of the week.



We had our 12-week OB appointment, since the baby was still there and had a good heartbeat, we went ahead and announced on Facebook. And I started telling co-workers. The picture of Anaya & Claire in the grass was an outtake of my attempt to get a good picture of Claire wearing a big sister shirt. She wasn't really into cooperating with me. I took a picture of all the duct tape bows that Anaya made this summer. I took Claire to monkey bizness to wear her out. And we bought Hot Huez hair chalk for Anaya and ended up giving Claire some pink streaks...because it was really cute! And I made two homemade pizzas using my most favorite crust ever that tastes like Pizza Hut Pan crust. So so so yummy. And the tomato basil pizza used tomatoes from our garden!

In Week 30, I got back to my normal date range of Monday to Sunday.



We hung around our house. Justin's brother and his baby came to visit us for a little while Friday evening. Then Saturday, we went to a friend's four yr old's birthday party - it was pirate themed and they had a pool set up in the backyard. I always think that their little boy is so much younger than Claire, but really they are only about 6 months apart in age. They should both be starting Kindergarten next year! At some point I took the girls to the mall and we rode the carousel, because we ALWAYS ride the carousel.

Project Life : Week 27/28

I love this picture from when we were in Colorado. Love Love Love. I have been wanting to make a page with a huge blown up picture ever since the first time I saw Elise do it. But I never seem to have the right pictures to do it. Since I already knew I wasn't going to include very many pictures in this layout, I found a favorite that just says "Colorado" to me and I blew it up to 12x12!



I added the Colorado text and the dates in photoshop prior to ordering. The right side just includes a few high-light pictures. I also included the two pictures that we had taken on outings (the Royal Gorge Railroad and the Denver Aquarium). Copyright laws being what they are, I wouldn't be able to include those in my Colorado Blurb book. Rather than take the chance of it causing an issue, I just included them here.

Project Life posts will probably be happening on Sunday from now on. It is just easier to get good pictures of my layouts on the weekend than it is during the week. Particularly as the sun starts setting earlier and sometimes I'm barely home from work before it is getting dark!

Project Life 2013 Update

I am mostly caught up on Project Life, I just haven't been taking pictures of my layouts. I also haven't been ordering my pictures as regularly. I really LOVE Persnickety Prints and have ordered from them the last two times, but that means I usually save up my pictures until it is "worth it" to pay shipping.

I still have 2-3 weeks from my last order to put into my album. And I have about 2 weeks worth to prep and order. And maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to take some pictures of my layouts and start sharing them here again.

I'm also really excited to the upcoming holiday season. I'm already planning some things to do as a family - even if I have to drag family members along kicking and screaming. Although by the time I'm 8 months pregnant (in December), they should really just do what I want so that I don't hurt myself. :)

I've also been really motivated to get back into working on my Project Life 2009 album. I left off on it in May for pictures and February for posting. But I plan to start working on finishing up layouts so that I can get those pages posted as well. When I was pregnant with Claire, a lot of my "nesting" took the form of baking. Since I'm watching my carbs this time around, I'm trying to force my baking desires into other projects (cleaning, organizing, scrapbooking).

Project Life 2013: Week 19

Week 19: May 6 - 12

Love love love this project. I am so happy to be keeping up with my memory keeping without having to pick and choose only a few stories to tell. I get to tell all our stories, easily, without spending FOREVER making pages.

I took a couple more 6 month pictures of my adorable nephew on Monday, love the one of him looking up at the camera. Our neighborhood Ice Cream truck driver knows that we're a sucker for overpriced ice cream cone and came by at least once a day during the weekend.


On Tuesday, Claire school had a field trip to a local farm/park. Claire LOVES this place. We go multiple times during the summer, this year she is obsessed with the idea of going fishing there. I'm not looking forward to that experience since I would be the one putting bait on the hook - yuck!

The back of the insert includes some pictures from the part of the weekend while we had Anaya. Since it was Mother's Day weekend, she went back to her mom's late Saturday night to spend Mother's Day with her mom (as she should).


The next page is just some pictures from Mother's Day here. We spent the day with my mom. My brother smoked a brisket and Justin & my dad brought sides so that none of the moms had to cook.

Project Life 2013: Week 18

Week 18: April 29 - May 5

Just a story, not related to the week of PL that I'm posting pictures about: This past Saturday, Project Life kits arrived at my local Hobby Lobby as soon as I knew they were there, I dragged the kids to there in hopes of getting a signed one. As were standing there and I am debating which kit to get (there weren't any signed ones), Anaya asks me, "So, why are you into Project Life all the sudden?" At which point I had to explain that it wasn't "all the sudden" it was just that this is the first time we've been able to buy it in a store!


This is how I plan out a project life spread. I pull out a drawing tablet (6x8") and I write a list of events that happened during the week that I KNOW I want to include. Then I sit down at my computer somewhere between Sunday night and the following Sunday night and select which pictures I want to include. Then I draw out the spread in my little 6x8 inch drawing tablet. I draw out any inserts that I'll use, mark where each picture goes and sometimes find another related picture to fill in a hole. I verify that I got all of the events - sometimes if I only have pictures from something on my phone, I'll forget. Then I drag all of my pictures into photoshop. All at once and then I wait for it to actually open them all in photoshop. Since I know at this point what sizes I need to crop each picture, it is easy to go through do any color correcting/lightening/darkening and cropping that needs to be done. I also add any text that I want on the pictures at this point. Then I upload and order them (I use my local grocery store) and then I forget about it all until I get the email saying to pick them up. Since I have my sketch, it is easy to sit down with the pictures, my kit and my drawing tablet and stick the pictures in the slots.


This week was crazy weather week. In the 80s on Tuesday, snowing and in the 30s on Thursday (IN MAY!). When I got home from work, Claire was insistent that we needed to go outside in the snow. We went out and I attempted to cover my garden with a sheet, then Claire said too cold, go inside.


On Saturday we went to a birthday party for the son of a friend. He had it at Pump It Up an inflatables play place. Claire cried for 20-30 minutes of the 2 hr party. Then we took Hudson's 6 month pictures on Sunday. He's such a big boy! And then one of our cats, Reeses, snuggled herself into a wicker basket that we use for dirty towels and I took pictures...then Claire had to get in the pictures too.

Project Life 2013 : Weeks 8 and 9

Week 8: February 18-24



What happened this week?
Snow. Lots of snow. On Thursday we got over 10 inches of snow, my work was closed Thursday (and I stayed home Friday too), the schools were closed Thursday and Friday. Since there was so much snow we also spent almost three entire days at our house, only going outside to play in the snow & to shovel. Oh, and Justin had the flu (I think) most of the week as well, so I had actually ended up taking Tuesday afternoon off to stay home with Claire because he was not up to it.



Anything special about the layout:
All of the pictures this week were taken with my big camera. One insert for more snow pictures.

Week 9: February 25 - March 3



What happened this week?
On Tuesday, we had ANOTHER snow storm come through and drop almost 10 more inches of snow on us! Claire had two more snow days but I only had one snow day this week. On Saturday, the local Mahaffie Farmstead had horse drawn sleigh rides and since Claire loved haw rides in the fall, I decided to take her to ride the sleigh. She loved it. And my nephew turned 4 months old.

Anything special about the layout:
No phone pics this week either. I actually need to replace the picture that was just of the sleigh because I was looking at the site's webpage and they have a picture of us on the sleigh and they gave me a copy of it!

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

Project Life 2013 : Weeks 6 and 7

Week 6: February 4-10



What happened this week?
Claire finished her swim lessons. On Saturday, I took Claire to an neat little kids "museum" Wonderscope. She had a lot of fun pretend playing in the farm to market room and with the wind tubes & scarves. My sister-in-law had her baby shower on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday after lunch with my parents, I took Claire to the mall to ride the carousel.



Anything special about the layout:
3 phone pics, 9 good camera pics. I included an insert with a note from Claire's school on one side and her certificate for completing swim lessons on the other side. The LaLaLoopsy card is actually Claire's Valentine for school. I wanted to include it in Week 7, but I really wanted to see both sides, so I just let it show through to this week. Almost all of the pictures are from the weekend. I think only the swim pictures are from during the week..

Week 7: February 11-17



What happened this week?
Claire's Valentine's party at school - I didn't actually go to the party, so all I'm including for Valentine's day is an extra card that she "wrote" on and a picture of a temporary tattoo that I put on my wrist. We had a teeny tiny amount of snow on Friday night (not even an inch) but Claire was insistent on Saturday morning that we needed to have a snowball fight. So she found enough snow to scrape together a "ball" and threw it at me. It was Anaya's weekend with us so I included a couple pictures of her, but it's hard to include her since she's 13 and therefore doesn't want to hangout with family as much. We also hung out with some friends of mine from college (eating dinner + drinking wine + playing board games), they have a daughter about Claire's age and I have a picture of them to include in that white space, I just forgot to order it.

Anything special about the layout:
4 phone pics, 7 good camera pics. Nothing terribly different this week. Almost all of these pictures pictures are also from the weekend. I just haven't been doing anything during the week, so I tend to not pick up my camera as much.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

Project Life 2013 : Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4: January 21-27



What happened this week?
Claire continued swim lessons. A girls shopping trip with my mom & sister-in-law. 3 month pictures of my nephew. Just a fairly basic week.

Week 5: January 28 = February 3



What happened this week?
More swimming lessons. Claire had her 4 yr check up (text blurred out). Claire's homework for speech therapy was M and N starting sounds, we did most of it in the bathtub spelling out the words with her foam letters. We got our fish tank + 9 fish & 2 aquatic frogs. 3 of the fish (neon tetras) died within 48 hours of being put in the tank, the other fish are all still alive over a month later. One of the frogs died, one of them is still alive. It was Superbowl Sunday and I included a funny story about Anaya being oblivious that happened during the Superbowl.

Anything special about the layout(s):
Not really. Week 4, I had 4 phone pics & 8 good camera pics. Week 5, I had 2 phone pics & 9 good camera pics. I like the one in week 5 of Claire looking at the fish tank that I cut in half to fit in the middle row pockets + journaled on one side of the picture. Since the picture wasn't originally solid enough on one side to journal on I added a gradient layer that was black to transparent to make the side where I journalled a little darker but not be super obvious by having an opaque journal block.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

Project Life 2013 : Week 3

Week 3: January 14-20



What happened this week?
It was Claire's FOURTH birthday! We celebrated it three times (once at home on her actual birthday, once on Saturday with Justin's parents, and again on Sunday with my family)! Claire also started swimming lessons which is honestly one of the most stressful things I have ever done. She seriously, slipped into the pool the first night (in 4ft deep water) and the teacher was not fully paying attention. I about lost it. And now there are only two more classes and we're all going to survive, although I've possibly irritated the teacher by refusing the leave the pool room anymore.



Anything special about the layout(s):
I ended up with two inserts this week. The first one is about 8.5 x 6 inches. The front is just some journaling about Claire turning four and some of her favorites. In the back, I included some of her birthday cards. The second insert includes pictures from two of Claire's parties (the one at home and the one with Justin's parents). The only cellphone picture this week is from swim lessons.



What to see more: Project Life 2013

Project Life 2013 : Week 2

Week 2: January 7-13



What happened this week? Claire's birthday is the following week, but on the Friday of this week the temperature was in the mid 60s (which is slightly weird for January in KS), so I ended up taking the afternoon off work and taking Claire out to a park to play and take 4-yr pictures. I wish I had changed her clothes, but when we left the house I was just going to take her to get her hair trimmed and then go home, change clothing and go to the park. Oh well. She's still a cutie! Then I included a couple of fun Claire stories on the "Currently" card. And we had a new adventure at an indoor trampoline park that just opened in December. Claire had fun and we'll definitely have to go again someday.



The only phone picture this week are the ones from the Trampoline Park. I wasn't sure what we were getting into so I didn't take my big camera. I should probably replace the batteries in my old point-and-shoot to take with me places like this. I also have the painting that Claire did one evening this week that was mostly a bunch of her hand prints. I'll probably trim it and fold it and put it in an 8.5 x 11 insert.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

Hello Project Life 2013 + Week 1

As soon as they made the new editions announcements back in the fall, I knew that I was going to get Seafoam. It fits in with my blue/green project life theme (and it's close to my favorite color, teal). The first day it showed up on Amazon, I ordered the core kit and a big set of Design A inserts. Less than a week later, it was in my hands - of course that was about a week ago because I was also waiting for the album to get here. I already had a plan of how I would do my title page before the kit even arrived. I'm waiting to even look at the end page until the end of 2013 because who knows how many album I'll end up using!

Title Page



This is possibly one of my favorite title pages for Project Life. I love the calendar (although I ended up doing that in 2012 also). I love the zig-zag card with our H on it. I don't love my homemade "Hello 2013" card. I'll probably pull it out and re-do it. Either by hand or on my computer. I really like Ali's "Hello Life 2013" box, but I haven't managed to convince myself to spend almost $5 on it.

Week 1: January 1-6



What happened this week? This was the first week of January & of 2013 (obviously). I had Tuesday off work and it snowed the day before so I took the girls sledding - it only took 2 or 3 years of Anaya asking for me to finally do it! The girls were still out of school, but I went back to work on Wednesday after having almost 2 weeks off. We also took some 2 month pictures of my adorable nephew.

I'm not a huge fan of cell phone pictures - maybe if I had an iPhone it would be better but my fancy-schmancy android phone pictures suck if the lighting is anything but wonderful. The sledding pictures are from my cell phone because I didn't think I could manage my big camera + sledding without getting snow in my camera.