Project 365 Starts Again

Many of you know that I am a fan of Becky Higgins’ “Project Life,” a photo album consisting of at least 365 photos depicting an entire year.  The idea is to take one photo a day, write about it and then compile it into an album.  Since starting the project two years ago, I have adapted it to fit my needs each year and usually add more photos each week, less journaling.  The writing became a little cumbersome and I found I wanted to show more photos than just seven per week.

I just received my Project Life album (currently unavailable through amazon.com but more are coming in the next few weeks) and although I do not use all of the pieces and parts to the kit, I find that the 70% I use well worth the cost of the entire thing.  For me, it just works.

• I like being able to simply slide my photos into my album, jot a few lines on the journaling card and walk away.
• I like adapting the concept to fit my needs by often using a whole week or multiple spots for just one important event that I don’t want to limit to a single photo sleeve.
• I like that all of the scrapbook-ish elements are already done for me and I just have to pay attention to capturing the moment through my lens and pen.

• I like that I can leave it out in my family room throughout the year and that people actually browse through it as a work in progress because it’s manageable to look at.
• I like that I end up taking a lot of photos of things that I wouldn’t normally have a reason for snapping that shutter button but are important pieces of our lives.
• But mostly, I like that at the end of the year I have an entire album full of our family’s memories and if I didn’t want to do any other memory keeping, I wouldn’t need to.  Done.

So yes, this system works for me.  I love the idea of using her digital version because I am very into the compactness of albums from Shutterfly or Snapfish or mac.com, etc.  Big albums become so cumbersome.  But I can’t get past the fact that so many people enjoy the work in progress aspect of the photo album format so I keep coming back to it.

What do I use from the kit?  Here are the specific items that I use every year:

• specialized sheet protectors (vital for me)
• printed “designed” cards that create a title and ending page and label each week (also vital – I don’t want to scrapbook this stuff myself)
• journaling cards (I use about half of what is given)

The rest is available for me if I get ambitious or want to add a little something but to be honest, I end up not using most of it.  I order a new 12×12 album from We R Memory Keepers simply because I like their classic leather ring albums in all the sizes.  All of this means that I don’t really do this project because it is cost effective, although it can be if you stick to using Becky’s album.  I use the kit because it is simple and incremental and half of it is done for me.  And it even allows me to also be able to spend a little time on other memory keeping projects if I want.

Here I go with Project Life.  Another loosely-interpreted “photo a day” year at the Hall house.  Or should I be more realistic and just call it “Project Cole,” since 90% of the photos revolve around this little rascal anyway.  Good thing he’s so dang cute!

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Daily LIfe

Another day to love Project 365.  Nikki, Cole’s babysitter and my friend, snapped this photo while Coleman watched the kids play from his favorite spot at my office window.  Not much could be better than a sippy cup, a sunny day, and a window that is one foot off the ground.  Although I didn’t take the photo personally, it’s going right into my Project 365 album for the year.

This is daily life.

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Download Day + Project 365

I spend a lot of time in my home office.  It is at the front of our home and I like looking out the window at our neighborhood.  Cole can easily reach this window and I have found him looking out of it a lot as well.

It stands to reason, since this is my view for the majority of my day, that I would find many things out my office window to photograph.  The snowplow that actually came into our cul-de-sac for the first time since we’ve lived here (hooray!), the Christmas tree waiting to go to the dump in our neighbor’s trailer, two neighbor kids using our paver pathway to walk along and play.  Daily life happens right outside my window.

We have had a lot of fog over the last couple of weeks.  It makes the air smoggy as well and we can’t wait for a little wind or a storm to blow it all out of the valley and give us our fresh, clean blue skies.  When I go out for a run I come back smelling like a diesel truck and even have to wash my hat in order to get rid of the smell.  Gross.  I can’t wait for fresh air.

One of my favorite photos in my Project 365 book, however, was taken on a foggy day, through my office window.  I see this picture all winter long when I sit at my computer and just glance to my right.  Then I see the same view without the snow all summer long.  This particular day it seemed so beautiful to me, with the fog and haziness.  I think I captured the essence of the scene with this photo.

This is what I love about Project 365 – the freedom to take photos that might seem random but are the bits and pieces of our lives.  For our Download Day, I’m giving you something wintery,  just like the scene outside my window.  You can craft while you stoke up the fire and make yourself a cup of hot chocolate.

Enjoy!

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Postpartum: Project 365 of Gratitude

My neighbor offered to pick some things up at the store for me - a small gesture in her mind but an enormous one in mine

I admit that I haven’t kept up with the journaling part of my Project 365 of Gratitude album during my postpartum issues – I’ll get to it (see #2 on my last post).  But I have tried really hard to take photos of things I am grateful for, print them and insert them into my album.  It’s interesting to see how the things I am grateful for have reflected my thoughts and feelings of going through this experience of postpartum.  That’s the point of the project, I suppose.  Capturing the moment – day by day no matter what is happening.  I have taken photos of things that I never would have thought to preserve before and I’m grateful for the chance it gives me to store the little memories that happen as we journey through the ups and downs of daily life.

But the real reason I kept up with my daily photos is because I know how healthy it is to have to remember to be grateful – even when I haven’t felt 100%.  Having to find something…anything…to be grateful for is part of the healing process.  Not only does it help us to maneuver through the twists and turns of life but it is the balm we need to overcome the obstacles we face.  Gratitude is the secret weapon for happiness.

In my last post I shared some of the mundane things I have been grateful for over the last couple of months and here are a few more.  Gratitude is truly all in your perspective.

I actually weeded the yard myself - with Cole's company, of course

Nausea from the medication made me feel like I was having morning sickness again. G2 is my beverage of choice in that situation.

This was the first time I felt like I could tackle going to the store - it just seemed like such a big place it overwhelmed me. Coleman is doing a good job holding the cake Jason bought.

Jason taught my church lesson for me so I wouldn't have to worry about it

I actually finished the content for another month of our BPS workshop - that was a hard one for me

I could have taken a photo every day of these two - they saved me

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Giveaway Winners + A Little Gratitude

Wow!  What a great response we’ve received regarding the fabulous ideas for taking meals to people.  Thank you, thank you for posting!  If you have any more ideas then please continue to post so that we all have a place to go for our info.  I have learned TONS and don’t feel so much like a fish out of water any more now that I have an arsenal of easy, tasty recipes and tips right here ready for me – you all are awesome!  I had Jason randomly pick two winners of my stamps giveaway for us and here they are:

Daniela
Submitted on 2009/04/04 at 10:14am

I just found this recipe on Carla’s blog…I am always looking for new ideas and this would be perfect:

1 pkg. frozen cheese (or meat) tortellini
1 jar pasta sauce
1/2 c. melted butter
1 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, italian seasoning
1-2 c. mozzerella cheese

Directions:

Boil tortellini according to pkg. Toss with melted butter. Mix bread crumbs with parmesan, salt, pepper, & italian seasoning to taste. Gently mix bread crumb/parmesan mixture with tortellini. Pour into baking pan (spray with PAM or coat with oil, etc). Drizzle with pasta sauce, sprinkly mozzerella cheese over all. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes.

I would include a note with a recipe and my number if they have any questions or need anything else. I would bake the dish in something that they do not have to wash or return. I would include something to drink.

and

Melinda Wilson

Submitted on 2009/04/06 at 9:58am

Some of the foods I like to send are soups – Santa Fe Soup and White Chili. I will make this up and then send it in Freezer bags so they can warm it up when they want it or put it in the freezer for later. I have grilled boneless chicken breast and taken it with salad mix and dressings. Should they not want to eat it then, the chicken is great on the salad when it is cold.

Winners please email me directly (kolette@kolettehall.com) and tell me where to send your prize.

Because of the fabulous collection we’ve created here on this blog regarding meals, I also wanted to thank Carmel – our reader – who started this whole thing by asking her simple question last week.  Carmel, please send me your address because I have something for you, too!  I appreciate you reading, commenting and sending us in this direction.

This goes for all of you – whether you are a commenter or a lurker (I know you are out there) I thank you for following my blog, sending your support through cyberspace and being interested in what seems like just an ordinary life to me.  Thank you!

In the spirit of thanks – I was planning on snapping a photo of my tulips that are just starting to open up in the middle of my daffodils this morning for my 365 Days of Gratitude when low and behold – I saw this!  We live on a golf course that supposedly was some kind of wetlands years and years ago but I have never had any ducks come to visit us before.  I ran for my camera and got this shot as this partnership was getting up and walking away.  I wish I could have gotten them from the front but they were headed off to their next destination – didn’t they know that I have a project I needed them to pose for?????

I’m not a farm girl, although I like some open space.  I am allergic to just about all animals, including my neice’s bunny “Pete” from 1985.  In spite of that – I loved having these visitors right outside my office window this morning.

Today I’m grateful for ducks.

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365 Days of Gratitute Update

I’m sure that it comes as no surprise that my 365 Days of Gratitude project has taken a sharp turn when it comes to what kind of photos have made it into the mix over the last 6 weeks.  And although I am consumed by the amazingness of this little guy in our lives I have realized some things when it comes to what I am grateful for each day and how I document that gratitude.

The 1200 photos that I have taken since January 27 (I know, it’s ridiculous!) have been whittled down to 500 (still ridiculous!) that have actually remained in my iPhoto Library and then I have carefully picked from those as I decide what actually gets a spot in my Project 365 album.  So yes, many of my current photos revolve around life with Coleman – how can it not?  I see things to be grateful for from every direction…people just can’t seem to help themselves when a new baby is around.  They just want to love and hug and play with him – all under the guise of “babysitting.”  How can the gratitude I feel right now in my life not be centered on the miracle of a new life in our family?

So whether my photos are focused on the people who come to visit us, the grandmas who take a burden from my shoulders to allow me time to learn a new way to work with a baby around, the meals that are brought over, the great ideas that Jason has in order to provide more “hands-on” care than we thought would be possible, or the funny little changes and growth that we see each day in Cole himself, my album has changed.   And I’m ok with that.  It’s one of the reasons I chose to do this project this year and in this particular way.

And I’m really glad I did.

Mary Ellen Edmunds once said, “I’m glad I wrote in journals because I never knew when I was at the beginning of, in the middle of, or at the end of a miracle.”

I am feeling the truth of that statement so strongly right now.  I have to laugh at the photo in my album of the day before my water broke and we rushed to the hospital (I posted it last week but here it is again) I never would have taken this photo if I wasn’t doing this project.  And what a memory to have recorded – my thoughts and feelings, unaware that it was just a few hours before my life changed forever.  I will never have that memory again and I am so glad I have it captured.

That is why I am doing this project.  To capture the moments when the moments actually happen.

But now that I have had a few months to work on the project I have refined my system and I thought you would like me to share it with you.  First, you know that I went through my whole album and inserted the “week” cards (labeled with the dates already) and the journaling cards (blank) along the bottom of my album pages.  So that part is ready to go.  I also placed one strip of days of the week stickers in the Saturday pocket of each week so they are handy.  Finally, I have my clear dot stickers for each day of the week that go on the photos themselves in little individual bags by letter (one for “S,” one for “M,” one for “T,” etc.)

But I already told you all of that if you click here.

The part that I have figured out since is how I maintain my album as I go along each week.  If you are using Becky Higgins’ kit like I am or adapting your own supplies to work, it is helpful to have supplies on hand that make the decisions each week simple and quick.  I found that I had quite a few extra supplies from my kit – such as the tri-fold journaling cards.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to use those but needed them handy for when I felt like writing more than just what the normal cards would hold.

I also found that each week I was using other supplies as well and wanted them handy as I added to my album.  So, instead of hanging onto all of that stuff, all of the time, I have used one of the boxes that came with Becky’s kit for my “go-to” supplies.  Each week when I have a new batch of photos to include in my album, I pull out this little box and it has everything I need to whip up that week’s worth of memories.

In my box is the following:

• journaling pens (Micron 01 tip for the journaling cards and Sharpie fine tip for writing on photos)
• circle stickers backed in cardstock for each letter of the week (I keep the “S” ones together even though I use them for both Sunday and Saturday, and the “Ts” for both Tuesday and Thursday)
• adhesive to adhere the circle stickers to each photo
• scissors to trim the circle stickers that I have hang off the side of the photos
• tri-fold journaling cards (just a few of each design – I replenish when I need to)
• white-out (just in case)
• extra regular journaling cards that are left over from when I replace them with photos or the tri-fold cards

All of that fits into one little storage box.  I print my photos for the week, pull out my box and my album and can do a week’s worth of journaling and photo placement in about 20 minutes.  Then I stash my little supply box and it’s ready for the next week.

I have also been printing my photos with a thin white border because I like the look that the border creates on each page.

This is a year of gratitude for me.  Every year should be but I’m so glad I decided to really focus on it this year.  I love looking back at what I wrote each day and the photos that capture the most important parts of our lives.  I love it when other people come to visit and browse through the album and see our lives at a glance.  This project is already a treasure in my mind and I’m so grateful – yes grateful – that I’ve chosen to tackle it this year.

I know that you haven’t been able to see the photos I have included over the last 6 weeks of my blogging hibernation but here are some that have made it into my album:

I'm grateful to finally have "baby stuff" intermingled with my own things - I've never had that before.

I'm grateful that my brothers are all such great dads - here's Kent and Kam. Kamron drove all the way from Washington to surprise me in the hospital.

I'm grateful we work from home so we can take photos like this all day with our gorillapod!

After trying and trying, I'm grateful Jason & my mom finally said it's ok to bottlefeed instead of nurse. The guilt we women put on ourselves is ridiculous.

The generosity of neighbors bringing in meals was astounding. Thank you, thank you.

Coleman (and I) are so lucky and blessed to have two grandmas close by who love to babysit - it really helped me learn how to get back into a work system easier to have them available.

I used my iPhone as a way to keep track of feedings, naps, etc. - I finally felt like I knew enough about his schedule that I could give up the list-making after 4 weeks. I'm proud of myself for that.

I'm grateful that my sister borrowed Cole for the afternoon so I could work on finishing his room - it was the spur of the moment and I had a hard time seeing him drive away but knew he was in good hands.

We got a sling for Jason to use but I'm grateful that it works for me as well when I need to have both hands free at the computer and Coleman needs a little bit of "Mom Time."

I'm grateful I don't mind doing the laundry - even the little loads of baby things each day that I do to make sure he always has his little gowns that I love to keep him in right now

This was my 38th birthday shot - I'm so grateful for the men in my life.

This is who I am right now – yes, our focus has become little Cole – but that’s ok.  This is my life and I love it.

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Slow But Sure

About a week ago I remember thinking, “What are all those people talking about when they say that the last trimester is miserable?  I feel great!  I could be pregnant forever and that would be fine.  That way I would have a little more time to get my list done…”

Fast forward to this week….I now understand what everyone meant.

I am moving more slowly than I am used to – just having a hard time getting going and everything is taking longer than I want it to.  My back is starting to get more sore as the days pass.  I feel a tiny bit nauseous.  But mostly, two nights ago I didn’t sleep at all due to insomnia – I’m not uncomfortable, really.  I’m just wide awake night after night.

I got up and tackled things on my to do list instead.  I feel very blessed.  It’s true that actually getting pregnant was high drama for us, but since then I have had a pretty easy go of it.  Now that I’m down to my last 4 weeks, I think it’s OK to assume that I should be starting to feel less than ideal.  To be honest, I can’t complain.  I know that many women out there feel worse a lot longer than I have – we are very blessed.

So, at 2 am I decided to work on Cole’s thank you notes.  I designed them a while ago but I needed another batch printed out (Bazzill Basics textured cardstock) and trimmed to fit the envelopes.  I used this last round of finished notes as my Project 365 of Gratitude photo for Monday.  I had a baby shower last week and this stack is for my friends and family that came to that.  I am so grateful for supportive people from over the years who are coming out of the woodwork to celebrate this baby.  It’s a miracle and everyone wants to share in the excitement.  (click here if you want to know more of the story about this long-awaited baby and here if you want Jason’s take on it all).

Cole's First Logo - January 12 Project 365 Photo

Therefore, on Monday I was grateful for the amazing support and love we feel from everyone in our lives – represented by this stack of thank you notes.

I am grateful for my life.  Here are a few photos from my Project 365 of Gratitude this last week.

January 9 - I'm grateful for my brother Kent - with 3 little ones & one on the way, he's the expert who put the crib together

January 8 - I'm grateful for the connections from various stages in my past that this baby has created - here's a friend from junior high, some from high school, & from our time in Connecticut - all together at the baby shower

January 13 - I'm grateful that Jason finally got the pin out of his hand that had slipped and has been irritating him - just in time for it to heal before Cole comes (photo taken pre-surgery)

January 14 - I'm grateful that we finally got my wireless printer working after the lightening strike a few months ago - "Yeah!"

Big things, little things, and everything in between.  My life is full right now.  I am definitely moving more slowly…but I am steady and sure of my gratitude for our many blessings.

Today, when it comes to gratitude, these things I am sure of:

I am sure that being grateful has little to do with things going perfectly and a lot to do with how I look at each moment.

I am sure that generosity and love abound and have made our little world a place of celebration of miracles.

I am sure that whether I am a mother or not, I have the choice to be happy and love my life.

I am sure that being grateful is not reliant on having lots of stuff for the baby (LOL).

I am sure that our lives will never be the same again and I relish the chance for that to happen.

Slow but sure – that’s how I feel today.

______________________________________________________________________

We are loving our experience so far with teaching our Big Picture Scrapbooking class “A Life Well Crafted.”  Thank you to all of you across the globe for being a part of it.  If you would still like to join us – there is plenty of time.  Just click here to register for the year long (discount price) option or here if you would like to register month to month.

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Early Bird Special + Project 365 Organized!

Memory Works Retreat

Memory Works is hosting a Scrapbooking Retreat this summer where I will be the keynote speaker. I am very excited about this opportunity – there will be fabulous project classes, crops and lots of great memories made.  I would love to have you come to Utah to be a part of it all.

Just click here to go to the retreat website.  For more information you can click here for last year’s highlights, here for more about what others are saying about the event and here for the registration form.  We would love to see you there!

365 Days of Gratitude – Organized

I am pumped.  I love this project and everything about it.  I love thinking about something I am grateful for each day.  I love deciding the best way to capture that memory.  I love consciously looking for the good in my life and having a place to record my feelings as well as a visual image of that gratitude.  Many of you know that this year will be a landmark one for us.  After 16 years of marriage we are finally able to have a baby!  Because of that and because I am a strong believer in our happiness being directly linked to our gratitude, I am focusing my Project 365 on gratitude. (click here if you want to know more of the story about this long-awaited baby and here if you want Jason’s take on it all).

I have spent time this week getting my album ready.  I decided that I wanted to pre-decide as much as I could with the album because I know that life will get a little crazy in other ways.  I think this way I’ll be prepared to be as successful as possible to keep it up. To get my album ready, here is what I did:

1.  Create the title page and ending page using the pre-printed cards that were in the kit – with my own embellishment.  I will add a quote or my thoughts about the experience at the end once the year is over.

Title Page

Ending Page

I added chipboard words to some of the cards

I added a favorite quote to one of the cards

The purpose of it all

Ending page embellishment

2.  Insert the “Week of…” cards into each layout for the whole year.

3.  Insert one coordinating full-color 4×3 card in the bottom row of my sheet protectors.  I decided to use one per week as a journaling card because I like the full-color look of them.

"Week Of" card + journaling cards

4.  Then I divided the journaling cards into 3 sets and inserted a “set” of cards into the rest of the bottom row slots – sometimes mixing up the order of the cards for variety.  I will simply pull out the card each day and write my journaling.  If I need to switch a card for one of the tri-fold card options to write more, I will do that as I go.

5.  Place a printed transparency in empty slots throughout the year – there are enough to do one about every other week.

6.  I liked the option of mounting the circle “days of the week” stickers to a color before adding them to the page.  I went through and punched a whole bunch of circles from coordinating paper and added a sticker to each one.  I placed these by day in small ziplocks so I can easily grab one for each day of the week in the color I want.

Days of the week dots

7.  Finally, I cut the black, spelled-out days of the week stickers in half so each week was its own little sheet and inserted one week’s worth into one of the slots for each week.  This way they are always handy for adding to my journaling blocks as I go.

Black weekly stickers ready to go

All my album is missing are the photos and the actual journaling that I will do as I go along throughout the year.  This process took me a few hours to complete, I won’t lie.  But I feel like it is worth it to be ready for the year.  So much of what takes time as we scrapbook are making decisions.  Now, all my decisions are basically made and I can just concentrate on the record-keeping part instead of the decision-making part.

Finished journaling

So yes, I received my kit in the mail – but after looking through it I have decided that it would be simple to recreate the same concept on just 12×12 pages.  I don’t think that you even need the divided sheet protectors to make this happen.  Especially if you take advantage of Becky Higgins’ completely generous offer of downloading some of the weekly title cards and journaling cards that she has made available on her blog if you click here.

Here’s why a 12×12 page works the same as the divided sheet protectors from the kit:

• You can fit two 4×6 photos across the page in a row at the top (just like our kits have).
• You can fit a second row of 4×6 photos across the page under the first one (just like our kits have).
• You can fit four journaling cards across the bottom of the page – each 3×4 or the size you desire (just like our kits have).
• It’s easy to make your own “Days of the Week” stickers for the photos and journaling blocks.
  

The only difference is that you have no “slots” to slide everything into and you have to print the cards (from Becky’s blog) or create your own (which is totally doable).  I suggest you print or create a stack that you can use all year and you will be ready to go.  Just adhere the cards and your photos directly to a 12×12 background and once the page is filled, slide it into a regular 12×12 sheet protector.

I am loving this option.

Enjoy the process – whatever process you are using to approach this project.  I’ll post some of the photos from the last week or so next time – stay tuned!

JOIN US FOR A LIFE WELL CRAFTED WORKSHOP

We are loving our experience so far with teaching our Big Picture Scrapbooking class “A Life Well Crafted.”  Thank you to all of you across the globe for being a part of it.  If you would still like to join us – there is plenty of time.  Just click here to register for the year long (discount price) option or here if you would like to register month to month.

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365 Days of Gratitude Begins

I would find it uncomfortable to live in a world where I had no person to thank – Rosamunde Pilcher, Winter Solstice

I am relishing my decision to approach Project 365, where I take a photo each day for a year, with gratitude in mind.  Sometimes we choose to do things that really matter and for me, this is one of those times.

I know I said I was going to start on January 4 but I got thinking about it the week before and became too eager to wait.  I had things I wanted to document from that week and I refused to let the calendar dictate when I could start recording.  So I pulled out my camera, found a little notepad for the journaling notes I wanted to make each day, set up an album in iPhoto and started Project 365.

It’s true that I had to backtrack just a couple of days to create a full first week but there were things I wanted to document so it didn’t bother me.  Now I am on track, taking a photo each day and loving the opportunity to truly “notice” what I am grateful for each day.

Elizabeth Dillow (a fabulous influence in the scrapbooking industry and teacher of the totally unique workshop at Big Picture Scrapbooking called “Red Letter Days” – click here to register) commented here about her experience with Project 365:

I just finished Project 365 (+1). It was completely, utterly worthwhile even though there were days I didn’t feel like taking a picture. Funny thing is, looking back I can only identify a couple of those days after the fact. My only piece of advice: give yourself permission to take a few passes (I made my magic number of passes = 3) in case you absolutely just can’t get a picture taken.

Great advice, Elizabeth – it brings me to a point I want to make about my personal philosophy of Project 365.  I believe more in the spirit of the law than the letter of the law when it comes to what goes into my album.  I am focused on recording the “essence” of our life during the course of a year.  That means if I want to document two things that happen on the same day – I probably will.  If the date doesn’t really matter, I might even say that one happened one day and the other on the next day.  I’m OK with that.  It is more important to me to capture the most meaningful parts of who we are than to worry about the actual day they happened on.

That is why I didn’t get hung up on having to go back 3 days once I decided to start last week.   It’s OK if you don’t feel the same way that I do about Project 365.  It’s OK if you want to make sure that every day uses a photo from that actual day.  Whatever way you decide to approach this project is the best way for you.  Embrace it and love it but if you are feeling pressure about taking a photo a day – just know that you have a friend in your corner telling you that you can use one from tomorrow or as Elizabeth suggests – give yourself permission to just skip that day.

I posted a couple of my Project 365 of Gratitude photos in my last entry.  Here are a few more of my photos from the last week and a half.  No, I don’t have Becky’s kit yet (although I think once the dust settled that I actually ended up with one) but I decided that you don’t have to have the kit to do the project.  I have a file started for printed photos and journaling notes and now I am on my way.

December 29 - I am grateful for the joy that keeping the lights on during the day brings me

December 30 - I'm grateful I have plenty of work - including a new cartridge for the Cricut

December 31 - We love going to movies so we snuck one in before we won't have that luxury any more

January 1 - I am grateful for the excitement around our new BPS workshop "A Life Well Crafted" that started today

January 2 - My dear friend Jeana is making a quilt for Cole. She's been with me through thick & thin.

January 4 - I am grateful for the encouragement given to me by our church leader to be a "woman of stature and faith"

I am grateful for this opportunity to pay closer attention to the things that are meaningful in our lives.  I am grateful for these pieces and parts that will eventually make up a compilation of who we are, what we care about and how we are growing and becoming our best selves.

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Good Things Come In 3s

GOOD THING #1: A LIFE WELL CRAFTED

“A Life Well Crafted” started today!  I’m taking a deep breath as we gear up for a year of inspirational messages, fabulous projects and lots of other goodies as we spend the next 12 months together.

Already the gallery is full of students individual takes on the pre-workshop projects and I am amazed by the use of the color purple there!  I love it.

There is still time to join us in this experience – just click here to register for the month-to-month option or here if you want to take advantage of the full-year savings option.

I have had many emails and questions about the workshop where people wonder if they can commit to a whole year of a class.  Here is some insight to our approach to a workshop like this and my philosophy when it comes to your commitment to everything offered in the class.

1.  You don’t have to complete everything. We offer a lot of “stuff” for you to try each month with the hope that there will be something for everyone in there.  But you get to pick and choose what you want to do.

2.  You can use whatever supplies you want. Yes, I use certain scrapbooking goodies and techniques that are fun to try if you want but I believe that EVERYTHING can be adapted to fit your needs – a different size, a different shape, a different embellishment, a different technique, whatever.  This is your class – therefore you get the freedom to fit each project to your style, your time, your loves, your budget…YOU!

3.  Listen to or read the audio files first. Each  month we have created an audio message for you – starting in February that audio will be accompanied by a slide show presentation.  Read, listen to or watch the audio message first because everything else throughout the month, including the project, relates to that.

4.  Don’t put pressure on yourself. This journey together is meant to be reflective, creative and stretching but most of all, enjoyable!  Think of it as a year of tidbits to remind you of who you are, what you want to become and loving life.

5.  Try the monthly option if you aren’t sure about a whole year. If you don’t know if you can commit to all twelve months then sign up for January.  I have just been notified that at the end of January there will be a continued offer to “upgrade” to the full-year version.  So, give it a try.

6.  I haven’t taken any classes from BPS – how does it work? Just go to www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com and click on “classes.”  Then go to “workshops” and click on either the January or year-long version of “A Life Well Crafted.”  Then once you register for the workshop you will have access to the classroom.  In the classroom, use the left bar to navigate to all the different parts of the workshop.  New items will come available on Thursdays so check back throughout the month for all of the updated handouts, templates, and other fun stuff.  Even though new items are available only at certain times throughout the month, you get to access it all at your leisure any time after they have been posted.

7.  Is there anything that I will miss if I don’t log on at a certain time and day? The only thing that is “scheduled” are the live chats each month with Jason and I (click on “chats” in the classroom for times and days).  Everything else will go live at different times throughout the month and you can access it when you want.

Let me know if you have any other questions but in the meantime – I hope to see you in class!  There is still time to register.

GOOD THING #2: PROJECT 365 OF GRATITUDE

Now, about Project 365 of Gratitude – I have been on the Creating Keepsakes website since the kit became available with no luck – the servers are totally overloaded and so are the phone lines (I love that it’s so popular!).  Here’s the thing – I don’t need the actual kit to do Project 365.  It would be much easier for me to have everything done so I could just slip it in the sheet protectors but if you have been trying to order a kit like I have, you know that it’s been a little challenging and we might have to have Plan B.

So, we shall see what happens.  I have a confirmation number but $0.00 on the total so I don’t know if I actually have been successful or not.  In the meantime, I’m going to start snapping photos and jotting down a sentence each day so whenever I get the kit I’m ready to go – even if it’s in May!  It will be fabulous!  Click here for more information about Project 365 of Gratitude.

GOOD THING #3: SIMPLE KINDNESS

I just received a phone call from my neighbor across the street wondering when their family could come over to help me take down our Christmas tree.  How did she know that I have been trying to figure out how I was going to make that happen?  They helped me put up my wreath over the mantle and in the process put together the tree for me a month ago.  I don’t know what I would have done without them.  Their kids even came back over to do the ornaments.

So, my plan was to take down the decorations and have them help me get the tree back in it’s box but they are having nothing to do with that idea – in her kind way she said they would all just come over and do the ornaments and everything on Saturday.

We work very hard to be independent at our house – simply because we need so much help with physical things in general that we like being independent where possible.  But I’m incredibly grateful for wonderful neighbors who see a need and are willing to pitch in to help.  Thank you, Sandy.   You have taken a load off my mind today.

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