Project Life My Life!

Last year I decided that I would have a go at Project Life, I thought I'd give it a try and see if it was for me, I have to say that it definitely was!

For one thing it made me stop and think about my day as well as take a picture of the every day, every day :)

I always said the first year was going to be a learning curve for me and it was.  I decided to use all of my scrap paper and cut it down to size instead of buying any of the Project Life cards.  It worked but it was time consuming and I did fall behind.

But the enjoyment of the project never left me, even though at the start of this year I was over 30 weeks behind!

I didn't allow myself to be overcome by the amount of weeks I had to catch up with.  I bought some Project Life cards and set myself a deadline.

At the start of this year I managed 20 weeks per month and I loved it.  I really enjoyed getting all of the photos in my album and looking back over my memories, smiling as I wrote my journalling.

I showed my album to my mum, she spent ages going through all of the pages and, when she'd finished, she looked at me and just said "This is our life". It is our life, it tells the good, the bad and the ugly and my albums contain many stories that wouldn't make it on to a 12 x 12 layout.

So for Christmas my mum bought me a Selphy printer and that has made the whole process even quicker, I can print any photo I want, when I want it and it's especially great for printing 3 x 4 photos.

I got in to a rhythm as I was doing my pages.  I'd work out where my pictures were going, what cards I was going to use, then what washi tape, stamps and embellishments and then I would do my journaling.

And it was strange working on those earlier weeks because it hadn't seemed that long ago that I'd been actually living in those weeks.

I'm so proud of my albums and I love it when people want to look through them, I love how they appreciate them and it is amazing when my album inspires someone else to have a go.

I would say to anyone who's been thinking of doing it to definitely give it a go, it's one of the best projects I've ever done and one of the very few I've actually kept up.

So now I'm all up to date and it's the strangest feeling.  Instead of thinking each day of how many weeks I want to get complete I feel almost like something is missing as I wait for the week to happen so I can get it in the album.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my pages and I hope I've inspired you to give it a go if you've been sitting on the fence :)

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week 7

Well I'm still working on Project Life and I am aware that I'm a bit behind but I am still enjoying it and there's no way I'm going to put pressure on myself and turn it into a chore!

Here's what I got up to in week seven way back in February:

We enjoyed pancakes.
For Lent I gave up having sugar in my tea and coffee.  I still haven't gone back to having sugar all the time, I have it for a treat now.
I had cuddles with Pippy and Alfie.
I went back to the gym!

After not seeing Paul for a whopping 74 days I finally got to see him 15 minutes before the end of Valentine's Day!
We had a great weekend with walks on the beach.
Afternoon tea at Frieda's.
We also enjoyed lots of bubbly!

Right here, right now I'm enjoying the sunshine and spending time outdoors when I'm not at work.  I figure there will be plenty of time for Project Life when the nights draw in and the wind is howling at the door.

Ooh, I've also added a bit more ink to me but I'll save that for another time :)

I hope you're enjoying the summer, long may it last.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week Six

I'm still working on my version of Project Life.  The photos I'm currently scrapping are from the winter and, considering the state of the weather here at the moment, I really don't feel like I'm that far behind! 

It's been cold, windy and wet which is very similar to the weather we were having back at the beginning of February:

Week six was very quiet so only one page.

1. We had an unexpected afternoon off of work because the computers weren't working.
2. I finally took a picture of the artwork Maddie draws on my office whiteboard!
3. We spent a lot of time chilling and snuggled in front of the fire.
4. The dogs wouldn't let me forget it was dinner time!
5. My handsome Alfie :)
6. I had nice food, naughty food and very naughty food.  It was the crop birthday and we had a lovely cake.
7. A picture of us both wearing our glasses, it doesn't happen often because mine are just for VDU work.

So all in all a very quiet and boring week but still worth the effort of getting it in my album.

I have started week seven and I guess I'd better get a wiggle on and get it finished :)

Hope you're having a great week.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week Five

I'm still plodding along with my version of Project Life and I am still loving it.  I love the whole process from taking the photos and making photo collages to print to writing notes for the week.
It's great to look back and see what was happening in my world and here's what we were up to in week five:

 So, since I've lost weight I've become very vain, yes I think that song is about me, and I keep taking selfies! I had lots of cuddles with the dogs, the garden had turned into something resembling Glastonbury. The dogs paws were caked in mud and my heart was almost breaking with the state my new carpet was getting in, I say almost because the dogs are my life and they come first :) I also had a little win at bingo.

It really was a relaxing week for all of us apart from the epic walk we took the dogs on; we recovered far quicker than they did!  I also featured a photo collage of the complete month of pictures I'd taken for Project 365.
More current news is that I actually managed to sit in the garden for an hour after work tonight, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the dogs were panting after playing football together!
I hope your week is going well, I will be back on Thursday for Makes Me Sad/Makes Me Happy.
Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week four!

Well I've come down to the south coast to spend a lovely, long weekend with Paul.

Yesterday I took little Miss Pippy for a walk to the beach


It was a really gorgeous evening and the surf was up!


Today is a horse of a different colour!


Rain and low cloud that doesn't look like it's going to budge for the rest of the day, I don't care though because look what I brought with me:


All of my bits and pieces for project life :) and here is week 4 done and dusted


It snowed and I had a snowball fight, with the dogs, at midnight, in my PJs! I came home from work to find my neighbour, Drew, had made a lovely snow angel in the front garden. Pippy got a snow beard and wore her bandana on her head...strange puppy :) I tried a new flavour yoghurt. Paul bought me Project Life page protectors for my birthday, I sorted all of my paper scraps and drank too much coffee!


This was a really lucky week for me. I won £179 on the lottery, then £20 on a scratch card, then £10 on the lottery, £5 on a scratch card, £30 at bingo and another £15 at bingo! I haven't had any wins since so think I used all of my luck! Alfie was super cute cuddling Maddie and showing off how handsome he is.

So that was week 4, seems like only yesterday really.

I hope you're having a good weekend whether you have rain or shine.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

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Week Three

I realised that, not only am I slightly behind with Project Life, I am behind with blogging the pages I've already done!
Already it is lovely to look back on and remember what happened at the start of the year and here is week three:




Day one of week three was my birthday and I had a great day. I turned 41, it snowed and I had a win at bingo! My first Studio Calico kit arrived, I got some bargains from Boots and Maddie decided to pose for a quick snap in the office :)




I had my first cuddles with my niece Alice, I'd forgotten how small newborns are, my sister bought a new hat that made me think of Where's Wally, we had a lot of snow and Alfie turned Pippy into a snow dog when he rolled her in it! I drank a lot of coffee, nothing new there really, me and my friends battled through the snow to bingo, we're hardy birds! I had a lovely walk in the snow with my walking poles.
Like I said, it's already lovely to look back on.
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Week Two

I am a little bit behind on Project Life, currently halfway through week three, but I'm not letting myself get stressed by it because I'm enjoying the process so much :)

Here's week two, side one:


This was a busy week which started with some gorgeous cakes to celebrate my friend Sarah's birthday. Car parts had to be purchased when I forgot to replace the cap on the water bottle! I learnt, after owning one for 15 years, that Money Trees flower! It was our first full week back at work after the Christmas break and Maddie found it difficult to muster a smile. My beautiful niece Alice Rose was born :) and I wanted to document that I'm the only one who ever makes the tea at work!

Side two:


Cute cuddles with the dogs (this will probably be a weekly feature me and Maddie will never tire of) I read My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding and she replied to one of my Tweets!!!! I baked a birthday cake to take to my monthly crop and spent a fab day with the girls at the crop, actually did two whole layouts! Finally there is Lily, my neighbour's cat, who loves to join me in the garden for cuddles…when the hounds aren't around!

Already I'm loving going back and looking at the weeks that have passed.

Well another weekend is over and a new week is about to begin. I am so excited for the week to start because I'm going down to see Paul on Thursday and, apart from 30 minutes on New Year's Day, I haven't seen him since 1st December!

Have a good week and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

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Jumping on the Bandwagon!

Finally, after years of thinking shall I, shan't I, I have given project life a go. And I have to say I'm loving it.

I now know that if future generations look through my albums they won't just see the major, fun stuff that happened in our lives, they'll see the every day things too.

Without further ado here is my front page:


A couple of pictures of me and Maddie from last year and a picture of us together taken at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Week One:


The tradition of meeting Paul at a motorway service station to wish him a happy New Year, he always works at Disney on New Year's Eve so it's the only chance we get to see each other then. Decorations came down (always makes me sad), bargains in the sales, happy crafty mail, back to the gym, cuddles with the dogs and getting back to the diet. A nice start to the year.

I'm using this for my version of Project Life:


My scrap basket! So not only am I recording our everyday lives I'm also stash busting, win win!

I'll be back to share week two soon with its slightly more exciting moments :)

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone