my intentions were good. oh soooo good!!
I started out strong, just not strong enough.
now I am living with the decisions I made, and trying to catch up!
I set out to do project life, and got some pretty awesome tips to “help” me. some of them ended-up giving me excuses, and thousands of ideas as to why I should just start all over, but I am not. I am sticking to it. I will get there, slowly but surely.
so the things that i have learned, some the hard way, tinged with a smidge of regret, are as follows: (and i learned A LOT from cathy zileski, she is amazing!!)
- pick a template, maybe two, but the fewer the better.
- pick a kit and try to stick to it. there were fun cards and embellishments from my stash that i was able to use to mix it up a bit, but for the most part, too many choices just complicate things for me, and project life is not supposed to be complicated. i actually created a folder on my computer, and titled it "my project life" and copied the supplies i wanted to use continually throughout the album. for the most part, my background paper and fonts stayed the same. so did my template. i also edited my pictures the exact same way every time.
- calendar in a day when you project life it. have that time consistent so it gets done.
- i keep a journal on my phone with the day one app. every day i write about the events of the day, that helps when i go to journal.
- be flexible. i missed a few weeks, and that was hard to go back and fill in the gaps. when life just got too busy, i stopped. i still have catching up to do, and if i just started out being flexible with myself, i wouldn't be there. i also picked one way to start the album, one basic style to stick to, and i just wasn't loving it anymore come march. when you don't love what you are working with, you should be flexible to change it up. i wanted to keep the album cohesive, but i should have allowed myself to be more flexible so i would have stayed excited and in love with the process.
- involve your kids!! that is part of the plan for me this year. let them journal about the day or a certain event. after watching the rebroadcast of project life on creative live, i have so much motivation and new ideas to help keep this ongoing. scanning in kids art and school work is something that i want to implement.
- accountability. i have let my blog go, i don't post in galleries like i used to, and if i did, there would be some accountability. i wouldn't get behind.
I have a few weeks completed from last year, I still have A LOT of catching up to do, but it isn’t hard. two things that saved me: my photo 365 app and my day one journaling app. those were two things I was very consistent about, and now I have both of them to fall back on to fill in the many gaps of 2013.
