Project Life update & Thoughts on Project Life | February edition

Wow. I've been a bad blogger recently. I know it's not really a good enough excuse, but with the illness I have at the moment, it's making me dread sitting at my computer and typing for long periods of time. So I tended to avoid posting on here.

But that makes me sad, so I'm going to try and do something about that. 

The only way I can make this MAHUUUUUSIVE update as painless as possible is if I just pick a couple of my favourite weeks of 2013 so far. So here goes...

Week 3:

Lots of Seafoam goodies here, mixed in with a couple of other cards that I printed from the Project Life digital kits. I love that you can alter them to what you want as well. For example, I cropped the 'This was amazing' part from one of the cards in the Baby Edition For Him digital kit, coloured the background white, pasted it on to a blank 3x4 canvas and typed some journaling underneath. I could easily have used the card as is for regular journaling, but since I wanted to include part of a screenshot of my Twitter feed with it, this was the best way to go. Super fun.

Week 4:

Similar to Week 3 in that there's lots of Seafoam goodies, mixed with a couple of cards printed from the digital kits. The 'small moment big story' graphic is an extra element from the Cobalt digital kit...it was perfect to go underneath my photo!

And now for my latest thoughts on Project Life. I know it's not technically February any more, but I can promise you that it was February when I had these thoughts!!

I need to take more photos. In recent weeks, I've become very forgetful when it comes to taking photos. I've ended up having hardly any to choose from for some weeks and this stresses me out! I'm having a hard time with finding the right balance between taking photos to capture the memories and making sure to be properly experiencing things without the distraction of waving a camera around. Case in point...on Saturday, my lovely friend Elle and I had a small murder mystery party with our closest friends to celebrate our birthdays (hers was last Thursday, mine is this Thursday). I took a few photos on my DSLR, but not very many at all. Well, not as many as I'd like, let's say. One the one hand I am sad that I don't have more photos but the other part of me thinks that had I spent much more time with my camera, frantically snapping photos of everything, I wouldn't have enjoyed the party as much. Do you ever feel torn like this? I guess I'm coming to the conclusion that if I have at least a few photos from something like that, it's ok. And I've always got my journaling to keep the memories alive as well. But I still feel I need to take more photos. As in, remembering to pick up my camera (or, most likely, my phone) and just take a few photos throughout the course of the day. I also need to get less self-conscious about taking photos when I'm out and about. Who cares if I get funny looks while photographing my plate of food in a restaurant or the vegetable aisle in the supermarket, right?!

The camera on my new iPhone 5 is AWESOME. Ok, so this isn't specific to PL, but I thought it was worth mentioning here. I recently upgraded from the 4 to the 5 and my word, the difference is huge. I love love love it.

I am starting to develop a consistent style to my albums. This is helped by the fact that I'm trying to limit myself to the apps/filters I use with my photos. Most often, I will use something from VSCO Cam. But I recently purchased PicTapGo and I have a feeling that a couple of filters from there might be making an appearance. I have worked out that I like to include a mixture of full photos and photos on white canvases in my weekly spreads. The photos that get displayed on a white canvas I now pair with journaling in a font called Signarica. I love the handwritten look. (You'll be able to see this development when I share later weeks in future blog posts.) I then try and limit myself to one other font, which I use to give captions to some of my photos. I also want to try and remember to use digital brushes on my photos, since I have an ever-growing collection!

Typing my journaling on the cards frustrates me. It takes a long time to get everything just so and lined up, and half the time it prints wonky anyway. It annoys me. I am battling with the switch to handwritten journaling, however, because I hate my handwriting! I am so envious of Project Lifers whose handwriting I love. I know I just need to suck it up and deal with it. I already have for a couple of my most recent spreads and I love how quick it made putting the week together. I got my photos through the post, slipped them in, chose my journaling cards, wrote on them and BAM...I was done! Loved that. So I will probably continue with doing this, even though the sight of my handwriting makes me cringe a little bit.

I love the simplicity of this project. I think this is what is definitely keeping me current. I sometimes add literally a couple of embellishments here and there (e.g. a piece or two of wood veneer, a sticker or something simple like that) just to shake things up a bit and keep it interesting. But really, my spreads are super simple. And that's good for me, definitely.

I cannot wait for the new editions. Don't get me wrong, I love Seafoam an enormous amount, but I'm am SO EXCITED to get my hands on the new editions to mix them up with what I currently have. I'm on countdown. Can May just hurry up and get here already?!

I need to take better pictures of my spreads. Which is difficult, since the only working lens I have for my DSLR now is my 50mm prime lens. SO not conducive to photographing PL spreads. I need to work out a way to take decent shots of it. Any thoughts?

I think that's it for now. I promise I will try and be better at blogging my spreads regularly. I'm thinking maybe a post on a specific day of the week might work well. We'll see.

Happy Monday!

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