still focusing...pictures and Project Life

I think I'm liking this whole "choose one or two things per day to focus on" thing. Yes, I often have to stop myself from getting distracted by all the other things I see that need done, usually with a sharp vocal warning of "No Debi! Focus!" (And yes, the family is more than used to me talking to myself.) But I hope that as the month moves along, it will feel more natural to let things go in favor of making real progress in one area.

So yesterday's focus was "pictures." Okay Debra Anne, I certainly hope you learned a real lesson about keeping your photos organized on a regular basis! Yikes--what a nightmare. All the photos I've had printed since the spring of 2007, piles and piles of boxes of prints from Snapfish. (Of course, there is a fourteen month gap in them from when our computer crashed and we lost all our pictures because I had been so ridiculously lax in backing them up. And yes, that was a lesson learned. The hard way.) Anyway, all the pictures taken after that were easier to deal with as I do at least do a decent job of keeping them organized on iPhoto. But all the ones taken before the crash...yeah, that was a bit rougher. Particularly because the old memory ain't what it used to be. I did, however, discover yet another thing to be thankful for when it comes to blogging. Yep, thanks to the old blog, I was able to date and organize those pictures from years ago. :)

Anyway, the photos are now organized by chronology and event, placed in photo boxes, and in their new home on the shelves in my scrap area. (As opposed to all over the place, taking up already nearly non-existent floor space in my scrap area.)

And with that done, I moved on to Project Life. Didn't quite catch up, but I did manage to get the first two weeks of April done.

April 2nd-April 8th:

(An overview.)

(The left side includes a few misc. pics, a snippet from Gray's weekly class newsletter talking about their progress on their aquariums and terrariums, and a couple pictures and journaling related to Annie's volunteering at the town library.)

(A very simple layout sandwiched in the middle in order to showcase a few pictures Annie on her birthday.)

(While I had loads of other pictures I could have used to make another layout for Annie's birthday, I figured any additional layouts about her b'day would be better off in her albums. So I included Max's weekly spelling test. Oh my, does his handwriting need help. :P )

(And the right side. The top photo is one I used for photo scavenger hunt that Chris made for me, and beside it is the journaling printed from my tumblr to accompany it. The tab, cut from pattern paper allows it to be pulled out and read in its entirety. Same with that section of Gray's class newsletter on opposite page. The receipt from Annie's appointment with the neurologist and a wee bit of journaling to explain. A wish list of Wii games Max wrote...and I found under the couch. And a few more misc. photos from the week.)







April 9th-April 15th:

(An overview.)

(Tickets from both a couple of school-related events that Rich and Annie attended. And yes, I'm still envious that they got to go hear Barbara Ehrenreich speak. :P And a few misc. photos--one of which has been cut into two to fill the pockets, an effect I rather like.)

(And finally, photos from our first weekend of beautiful spring weather.)























I also managed to download the pictures of the gang's camping trip from Rich's iPhone. Had Max not been home sick from school yesterday, I might have even had time to do that week's layout...but overall, I don't think I can complain. Yes, I'm declaring May 2nd a success in productivity, too.

Here's hoping May 3rd will be as well. Today's focus: school and baby caps. And yes, nearly every day involves at least a couple hours spent on school--that's just the way it is--but today will be one of those days when it needs to be the major theme. And the crocheting--that's just to give my poor brain a break when I get too sick of the Middle Ages and need a few minutes to regroup. :)