documenting our life #ProjectLife style...week 10...

That weekly date night I set with myself for every Tuesday night to do Project Life...well, I blew it off last night. Not going to beat myself up over it though--I wasn't feeling good so I chose to just crochet and watch some SVU on netflix instead. But I figured I'd better get on it this morning because I'm still worried that I'll give up if I let myself get behind.

I have found a few things that really help me speed up the process, so now it honestly doesn't take all that long to throw a week together.

1. I've accepted the fact that most weeks are going to be *extremely* simple as far as extras and embellishments and pretty little doodads go. Meaning there may be nothing extra added beyond the simple strip of pattern paper sewn to my date card. That's OKAY!

2. Maybe the best thing I did for myself this time around was make templates for my date card and weekly schedule card. I just need to pull up the date card and change the date to the new week's. In fact, I usually do that as soon as I've printed out the one for the current week. Same with the weekly schedule card--it sits on my desktop and I pull it up every day or so and type up the current info, thus it's always ready to just be printed and cut out at the end of the week as well.

3. I've learned to keep a folder for the week's pictures on my desktop as well. I try to load the pictures from the camera every day, but in reality it happens every few days. Every time I do, I put any of the pictures I think there's even the remotest possibility I'll use for Project Life into that folder on the desktop. (And in iPhoto I keep the photos arranged by week, so if I happen to need something extra, it's easy to get the appropriate pictures.) When I set about throwing the week's layout together, I open the folder and get a rough idea of what I've got to work with. That makes it easier for me to pick which style of page protector I'll be adding for the second half (the first half, of course, is already decided as its the back of the previous week).

I seem to do everything slow, from reading and writing to scrapbooking and crafting. I often wish that weren't the case, but it is. But these three simple things have allowed me to speed up my Project Life process immensely. When it's a bare-bones layout, I can usually complete the whole thing...from choosing and printing and cutting photos to sewing on the pattern paper...in less than an hour. And in the end, I figure it's an hour well-spent.

Week 10 spread:

 

Side one:


Side two:


An invoice from some seeds that arrived, with some handwritten notes about our week:


Notes on this week's layout:

*I love it when there's a fairly even distribution of the kids in a layout. But I totally don't sweat it when there's not. It all evens out in the end.

*I rather like using those 10x12 page protectors mixed in with the 12x12s.

*I may just take too many photos of the furry members of the family. Or not. :)