PROJECT LIFE!

A picture each day for the entire year! I wanted to do this last year (it was called Project 365) but missed the boat on ordering the kit before it sold out. Luckily, Becky Higgins (BTW, I included links in this post, click on the colored words for more info) is a smart girl and realized she could make a fortune launching her own company based on this idea (wait a minute, why didn't IIIII think of this first????) and set to work on creating this year's version of the concept, PROJECT LIFE. It came in the mail at the beginning of the month and I have dutifully kept it up to date with a picture for each day! It hasn't been hard for me to take a picture a day. In fact, I have always been one to have my camera with me most of the time, so that part has been easy. Actually, the trickiest part for me has been DECIDING which picture to feature each day. Like for this week, "Saturday" I could choose:

Lewis' last basketball game,

Brayden airborne after a massive BLOW OUT!

or me with one of my Mia Maids after the Best of Especially for Youth activity this morning?

Obviously, some pictures turned out better than others, but what was the most important story for that day? Hmmm. It is a dilemma.

Or, there was this past THURSDAY that I am trying to figure out. Thursday was the Pinewood Derby and Lewis won First Place! Which picture do I choose?

The one with all the cute cars (Lewis' is the blue Utah Jazz)?

The one with Lewis receiving his prizes?

Or this one with Dad who helped him build his car?

It really is hard to narrow it down. I hope I get better at that part.

The whole concept is great. I am forced to tell the story of our family in a much more in depth, raw and true way. It is really fun and I am remembering to jot down the experiences and day to day things that I might normally forget about and might consider too boring to scrapbook. This set up gives me permission to talk about whatever strikes my fancy for the day, since I know that tomorrow, I can focus on something totally different and new!

Everything about this project has been easy and fun and I can't wait for BH to offer some more album options like school year books and baby albums. I also love that she is going digital and once she works the bugs out there (I'll give it a good year for everyone else to be the guinea pigs) I will definitely go that route. I love the idea of being able to create ONE book, one time, and then print it several times for different people in my family to have copies of. I also like that I can replace it if it ever gets ruined. Digital is definitely the way to go, but, like I said, it isn't my favorite way to preserve memories yet. Up until now, I have struggled with digital scrapbooking in other venues. It is not quite EASY enough for me yet and I have dropped the ball on a few projects I have tried to do. In fact, it has been a full year since I started changing my blog into a printed book format- I am STILL working on THAT. (Unfortunately, I am one of the guinea pigs for that venue and I hate it. I wish the kinks would be all worked out there). I just don't enjoy staring at a computer for hours on end and I don't like dealing with technology (it is always so fickle). Plus, I like to be able to SEE all of my creative options spread out in front of me and then pick and choose and create. It is too hard to do that in the cyber world and there are too many endless choices for a perfectionist girl like me. But, because I love Becky Higgins stuff so much, I know I would feel no need to change anything because it would be perfect from the get go and I really could just drag and drop and move on! I just like anything and everything Becky Higgins gets her hands on. It is always streamlined and easy and beautiful.

This album that I ordered this year is a HUGE three ring binder with all the essentials all ready to go. I just have to add the photos and words. EASY. But, I don't like how BIG the book is, especially since I don't have a ton of places to store things in this house, I am looking forward to the skinnier, more compact digital version for next year.

For now though, I am LOVING getting back into the old school, printing of the pictures and slipping them into a book made of paper and plastic page protectors. I love that I can write the journaling in my own handwriting, add memorabilia, and change things up if I ever want to. For now, this is a great solution for me to get SCRAPPING since I haven't in a very long time! And, so far, we've got one month DOWN! Only eleven more to go!