Hooray and Thank You!

Hooray! Hooray! Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took our recent class Catch Up with Project Life at Big Picture Classes.

It was really fun to see so many people get inspired and actually GET PAGES DONE!! 

So awesome. 

One of the cool things we did for the class was have a Big Party at the end, where we had 12 wonderful and amazing guests share their take on the challenges, and we also took on the other teachers' challenges. It was fun and so awesome to get inspiration from so many different styles and approaches. 

A few things I've learned: 

This community of Project Lifer's and scrapbookers and photographers and memory keepers is awesome.

Behind the scenes preparation is more than most people think. More than I thought. 

It takes time to learn to be a better online teacher.

It takes better equipment. I hope to get some better equipment to make it easier. 

It takes time and it takes heart.

It's not easy. I am thankful to those online teachers who put their heart into their work. I try to be one of those.

As Austin Kleon says, "write the story you want to read." I took that to mean, "teach the class you want to take" and so I went that route. I put my heart and time into it. I tried. I really tried. I was vulnerable and put myself out there. 

And I'm so thankful. So incredibly thankful to those who have taken the time to let me know how much they learned, how much they were inspired and how much they created! 

I know there are many online options now. It seems everywhere you look, there is this class or this sub or this thing. So I just wanted to say thank you for your time, your support and your feedback. It really helps.

So thank you. 

And where to go from here? I'll be working on my own Project Life and other projects as well as pages for Ali Edwards Digital Creative team. I plan to take some time off teaching online. It was a good learning experience, but my family needs me right now. I may be back, who knows? I plan to continue practicing with making videos, etc when I can and hope I can find time to share them. So who knows? When things settle down I may be back! :)

And definitely if you are looking for more classes with inspiration and encouragement for Project Life, I highly recommend checking out Megan Anderson. She is an amazing person and an amazing online teacher. I am so thankful for her guidance and inspiration and it was the most fun coming up with the class with her.

And keep an eye on my friend Trisha Harrison! Her work is beautiful and inspiring as is she! I'm so thankful she was a part of the class as well! And so thankful for her beautiful brush script which she let me use for this post. Definitely keep an eye out for her and hoping she will start selling her beautiful art!

Okay, not sure why I felt compelled to share all of this. I just wanted to say thank you for your support. And a reminder that as Ali says, "you are right where you are supposed to be."

Hooray!

Hooray brush script is from Trisha Harrison, used with permission. 

Wishing

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

So in the style of Currents, here is my wish list right now:

wishing for my bags to be magically packed overnight. where did those house elves go?
wishing I could finish some little gifts for my family, and realizing only one of my siblings is actually going to get them this year.
wishing I could just relax and let it go.
wishing I was a better friend. so thankful to those who have gone out of their way to think of me.
wishing that I could re-live a few priceless childhood Christmas memories. like my sisters and I making funky cookies to pixie our friends and neighbors.
wishing I had a pensieve so I could do that!
wishing I had more time and energy to do Christmas activities with my family.
wishing I could create and blog more. trying to be okay with that too.
wishing for a present mind, to be mindful and awake, to enjoy the moments I have now.
wishing for peace, comfort and healing to those in need.
wishing for joy to you and yours

May your hearts be filled with light and wonder this season. See you next year!

Week in the Life 2012: So now what?

Week in the Life: the week after.

I'll be honest. I have really good intentions. That maybe last a day. Such is the case with the daily journaling for Week in the Life. I did Monday...on Monday night. And it was awesome! Last year I didn't keep up so well with the journaling and note-taking, but I was still able to put together an album that I love. So yes, it would be easier in the end if I would keep up daily, but that's not always what works for me. I wanted to share a bit of where I am in the process. Because this is a huge project. Especially if you have >1600 photos like me! Here's a look at my Monday journaling:

Monday's Journaling

A closer look. This is classic: "Where are my keys?" Typical Monday morning.

I'll admit it. I felt pretty good about myself! The behind the scenes: I got off a little early that day which made it much easier to do! So as real life rolled on, my dedication wavered. And that's okay. I tend to do a bit of pre-journaling by writing in various notebooks, etc before I decide what I want to say on the daily sheet. And that's where these come in: 

My arsenal of note-taking tools.

A few things that work for me:

• Planner. Useful for jotting down the main events of the day as well as details. I will go through my photos and see what I've captured to help jog my memory. Can't remember an exact time? That's what photo "details/information" or metadata is for. I found that when I was putting together my album for 2011 that I enjoyed having a few exact times in there. It made it look like I was oh so good at keeping up! Ha ha! Really just looked up the info in iPhoto!
• Grid lined notebook: Love this thing. Sam found it for me at the bookstore and I love it. I can sketch ideas, jot down notes, whatever. I start all my projects in here.
• Cute little notebook: Little notebooks are great especially if the sizes of the pages can be used directly in the project. Bonus if they are cute! This one is from Martha.

Hello cute little notebook!

• Daily sheets from Ali Edwards. I printed these out smaller to fit my project too. I am planning on slipping them in between the photo layouts for additional journaling. I like the small format of my book but one thing I observed is that I wanted a little more details about the week, and these planning sheets are great for that.
• A good pen. I bounce between pens. For the actual daily sheet I am using a Zig Millennium pen in I think the 01 size. Other than that I just keep a variety of pens handy because which pen I use depends on the mood I'm in! Random but true.
• Momento: an app on my iPhone that grabs all my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds. I can also jot down notes each day. So easy. I love it! Day One is also good for journaling.

So that is kind of where I am at right now. I did upload photos from my iPhone and Canon every night. I have also created smart albums for each day in iPhoto. And I have my album and pretty papers and things just waiting for when I have time to work on it. 

Which leads me to reflect about an epiphany I had during the December Daily rush of 2011. I had made my cover and planned my papers but putting it all together and posting all the time just wasn't working for me. I realized that it was ok!

I create because I love to do it. The photos, the moments and the memories are what I want to remember. Thankfully I found Instagram because it allows me to share in a "microblog" format with the photos and make connections with other scrapbookers that I enjoy.

Hopefully this has helped in some way to those who may be a little slower on the production side of things like me. My motto: enjoy the journey and savor the process. It's such a blessing to be able to capture so much of our everyday. It's truly amazing and I am truly grateful for it all.

So how is your Week in the Life coming along? Would love to hear other tips too!

Currently

Working on: A Week in the Life 2011. Really really want to get it done before this year's big event in April. It's a huge project but a good one. If you have no idea what I'm talking about check it out here. The dates are April 23-29.

Procrastinating: Paring down 1,611 photos that I took last year for Week in the Life.

Eating: Shame spoons. A spoonful of peanut butter and chocolate chips. It's a homemade Reese's cup on a spoon. Oh so good, especially with all natural peanut butter and really dark chocolate.

Listening to: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. Breaking Dawn soundtrack. For some reason I can put this song on repeat for like a half hour.

Wishing: That I could be 50 pounds thinner by eating shame spoons. Yeah, I will have to work on that.

Hoping: To have a good weekend. Hoping you do too and that you get lots of scrapping time too!

Have a good weekend! If I get my Week in the Life done and posted, we'll celebrate with shame spoons! Until then here are a few sneak peeks.

Currents inspired by Tina Azmus

Ramblings

Nothing really cool to post right now except that December is zooming by. I am still on Day 1 of actually creating my December Daily album, and as Ali herself would say... "that is OK"!! So no berating myself, I have been working on it when I can. I have a feeling most of it will be iPhone photos with Instagrams and also a new app I found from a twitter feed-Diptic. Liking that I can play with more than 1 photo at a time and make a collage. I am hoping to get my photos and stories in order so I can work on them one day after Christmas. Like many others, with work and everything else, daily capturing + creating + uploading and sharing is just not an option for me. Truthfully I started to feel sad about it at first, like I was missing out on some big online sharing event, and you know what? There's just no point in that. I create for myself and for my family. And while it is really fun to share online and connect with others, I just have to say "Enough" and be happy with what I have captured and created for me and my family. I love what Stacy Julian calls it, the "Enough Quotient." So thank you to all who are able to create and share online. I admire all that you do and I am defnitiely inspired by your work. And to all those who create and don't share, know that there are probably lots of us in this boat, so keep on creating! And to those who think about creating I say awesome! I'm right there with ya! I really love this hobby and am thankful for realizing what I do and who I am is "Enough"

Now, back to playing on Instagram!