project life 2013 | weeks 1 & 2.

...nothing like a football-filled Sunday afternoon & evening for scrapbooking! I'm still doing project life Sundays to Saturdays and it's a rare Sunday that I have time to actually work on my pages. But yesterday I did and I made a quick trip to Costco this morning...and now I have two finished weeks to share.

First up, the title page. Totally lifted (with her permission :-) from Cathy Zielske. I'm using the Clementine core kit this year...and she is not. So I was pleasantly surprised that her colors seemed to work. (of course as you'll see in the photos below, I've used only one Clementine card so far...and I'm not much into matchy-matchy anyway.)

Simple. love that I have a photo of me & Marc (thank you, Katie) to include. so I can represent all the relationships and goals closest to my heart for the first half of 2013.

and now on to the first week. which was just five days. it's a good thing I take lots of pictures and keep plenty of "stuff".

that blue card at center right is the only core kit piece I've used!

Cathy Zielske's Week in Review card - something new

an iPhone screen shot (with some journaling) from my first long(ish) training run

hope to keep this format for all my cast-on's - Ravelry pattern page, who it's for and the date and a snip of the yarn I'm using

and week two. a full seven days and I found myself making hard choices about what to include and what to leave out. which is good I think.

the church bulletin cover with the last few lines from the Prayer of Confession; I loved snipping the words apart and gluing them back together during Advent!

ahhh...ode to DA. glad I wrote this before I saw episode 2!

this week's six mile run and one of Cathy's weekly lists

I'm doing some things differently this year - hoping to streamline the process and create a better product. When I started Project Life last spring, I just dove in. I bought a variety pack of page protectors (I think that gave me seven different options for a layout). I didn't get a core kit, but instead bought digital journaling cards from half a dozen different designers and kept a 3" binder of patterned paper and a few embellishments handy to include. I wanted to use the supplies I had and that seemed like a good approach. but all that flexibility meant I had a lot of decisions to make every week. which meant the pages took more time. and while I really do LOVE the finished album, I was ready to create a smaller creative play space for 2013. two weeks in, here are the rules I've established:

1. I'll summarize each week (including the dates) with one of Cathy Zielske's week in review cards.

2. rounded corners (this is hard, but yes, I do think the pages look so much better!)

3. page protector design A unless there's a good reason not to.

4. no ad hoc patterned paper.

and the guidelines I'm hoping to follow:

1. always include: church bulletin, inspirational quotation, one of my daily photos, something related to my half-marathon training (with the 13.1 overlay), knitting projects started (the three I've cast on this year have used the same format...I hope I can keep it up!) and some acknowledgement of every knitting project finished.

2. usually include: something about the weather and one of Cathy Zielske's life list cards. love how timely they are. but in a week where I have more stuff, this will be something I let go. so far, I'm two for two. we'll see.

3. hope to include: more photos of people (me included), not just things.

4. limit the fonts. I'm mostly using Arial with Bebas for the photo overlays. I'm also trying to be consistent about how I add text to my photos. will definitely make the album more cohesive.

5. finish the previous week before the next week ends. and blog about it. share photos on instagram. anything to help me be accountable ... and encouraged.