Project Life 2012

Ok, enough stuff that brings you down. On to more fun things!

I have made the commitment, pulled the trigger, and taken the plunge. I’m going to take at least one picture each day during 2012 and will be combining those prints into Project Life. For those that don’t know, this is a way to capture those little moments in life that wouldn’t make it onto a big scrapbooking page in the grand scheme of things. I bought the Clementine edition for this daily experiment.

A few days after my Project Life arrived in the mail, I opened the Amber edition from my mother-in-law for Christmas! It looks like I’ll be catching up on all the old photos with that kit as well!

So there’s a million different ways to use the kit, as they describe on the website. But I’m going to focus the Clementine edition on the daily picture and the Amber edition for the pictures from after our honeymoon up to present day. I hope they can all fit! I may have to break it down into multiple albums, but we shall see.

I’m really excited about breaking down my life into these snapshots of daily life. Since I decided to start scrapbooking after my wedding (as a way to expend my creative energies without a big party to plan and consume my life), I have struggled with the work that capturing the little things in life presented. Scrapbooking a vacation was way easier. I started out with a Disney scrapbook for my mother-in-law for her birthday and that was fun. And then I moved on to recording our honeymoon, which was really neat to relive that and remember what we did each day. But when I looked at my pictures from a random party or what have you, it felt weird doing an entire page for that. I left my crafting table full of scraps and my Cricut unused, much to my Husband’s annoyance. But I just couldn’t bring myself to work for hours on something that was just a page for a random day in my life, for some reason.

But Project Life? I think it’s a perfect fit. I can see the daily life, the ebbs and flows of what is going on right now, and that will give my kids and grandkids (hopefully) a look into what life was like in 2012. I would have LOVED to have something like this for my mom or my grandma. I’m hoping my future kids will think it’s neat! So. Project Life for the daily life and traditional scrapbooking for vacations. I have a plan and I’m going to execute it!

Has anyone else failed in scrapbooking, only to find something that helps them find their way again?

<I was not compensated for this post in any way. I just like the products!>

1. Finish honeymoon scrapbook – DONE!

It’s official.

I have finished the scrapbook for our 2007 honeymoon.

After three and a half years of working on it, I finally scrapped the last page tonight.

Then I cried! Something seemed so final about it, even though I still have to work on the wedding scrapbook.

Here are the last few pages…

 

This is the Chateau du Roi Rene in Angers, France. Husband studied there in 2004 when he went abroad for a semester, so we had to visit there during our honeymoon. The gardens next to the Chateau were so beautiful. There was a plaque in French that described the history of the place.

 

Nearby Angers was the town of Amboise. We toured the castle there and saw the chapel on the grounds – this is where Da Vinci is buried.

Inside, we saw the castle decorated as it would have been in the medieval ages when it was inhabited by the kings of the region. It was absolutely wonderful! I love that Husband had to sit in this chair and take a picture.  

 

Down the road from the castle at Amboise was Clos Luce, a sort of summer home. This was where Da Vinci lived at the invitation of the king for the last years of his life. The grounds are decorated with replicas of his invitations and is just a beautiful place to visit in the springtime!

 

“After our weekend in Angers, we were back in Paris for our last night in France. We had a reservation at Taillevent – our first five star restaurant. We ate and ate and ate for hours and then had the most amazing desserts of our lives. It was a perfect end to a magical honeymoon.”

 

“Our Honeymoon, April – May, 2007”

Unfortunately, the last page of the scrapbook didn’t quite fit in the book! I was so worried about finishing the last page that I didn’t count ahead to see how many inserts I had empty. But the good news was, there was just one last page that didn’t have a spot – but there was space on the back cover. A little glue fixed it right up!

 

You can see my other scrapbooking pages here.  There’s also a list here about all my 101 in 1001 items that I’m working on too.

The never-completed honeymoon scrapbook that is now two years overdue

I sat down a few days ago and continued on the honeymoon scrapbook.

Originally, I told myself that scrapbooking was going to be my big hobby once the wedding had come and gone and was no longer taking up all my time… in 2007.

Here we are, three years later, and we just celebrated our anniversary a few months ago. I had thought I would finish by my first anniversary. Well, not so much.

Here are a bunch more pages in the scrapbook… we’re getting closer!

Page One

“We spent the weekend in the country – so we had to take the train! The countryside was beautiful and the trip so peaceful.”

Page Two 

Page Three

Page Four

“Angers, France”

Page Five

“Saumer Castle – Unfortunately, under construction, so we didn’t go inside”

“But what a view!” 

Page Six

      

“The perfect side street…”

Page Seven

“On a side street in Angers, France, we found a little museum with a big secret…”

“A relief sculpture featuring the American founding fathers… and an ancestor of my mother’s mother – Robert Morris! How crazy is that?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think there are around four more pages after this. Almost there!

An Update on my Scrapbooking... did you know I scrapbook?

Did I mention that I'm a scrapbooker?

Well, I don't know if I can say that, seeing as I have not created a scrapbooking page in at least six months. But I've got a ton of pictures printed, tons of paper and embellishments, plus a room in the new townhouse that I call my "craft room" which houses all of my beloved Hobby Lobby finds plus a television, which gets the most use as of late.

In any case, Husband found me a great way to organize my crafting supplies and after we cleared out the Christmas tree and all the associated boxes from the room, I decided it was high time to continue my honeymoon scrapbook.

Yes, I realize that this April will mark our third anniversary and that this should have been done MUCH earlier, but honestly, we've been busy! And... I needed inspiration... and a place to set up... and the right paper... OK, I really don't have an excuse. My 101 in 1001 list has pushed me to start up again!

Let's just show you the pictures of what I've done so far... please don't laugh!

So we went to Paris and this was us on the outbound flight.

This was the statue of Moliere near our hotel.
Our Hotel de Moliere was where the playwright held his rehearsals in the 18th century. That's basically what the journal entry says.

We had a great view!

We were near the Opera and the Lourve.

Paris has such amazing buildings.


We had to take a picture of the St Michael statue - after Husband's namesake.

The must-have photo at the Eiffel Tower. The photo on the left is from the second observation deck.

And my latest creation...
This was our trip to Notre Dame... I absolutely LOVE the picture of the gargoyle we got from the top observation level. The quote says "This world is but a canvas to our imagination."

Any thoughts or suggestions? I'm just getting started with the whole scrapbooking thing and I don't want to start on my wedding book until I've got some practice under my belt!