There is this BOY

For some reason I have been in the mood to make some more home decorish type items.   This has never really been my thing but in the last six months or so we've made some changes and upgrades to our home and the ideas have started flowing.

I came up with an idea to do a picture retrospective of each of my boys with one picture representing each year of their life.  It took a long time to find pictures that worked well together, I am not going to lie.  But it was also kind of fun going through folders of so many pictures that I had forgotten about.  They really brought back a bunch of good memories.  

I found some large frames on Clearance at Michaels.  Not being a fan of white or black frames perse I pulled out some primer and spray paint and got to work.  These pictures are hanging in our foyer, and I kind of like the sunlight you see streaming across.  It does make the pictures harder to see so I have posted those alone as well.  The saying was something I instantly adored and naturally I found it on Pinterest. 

And the prints - well normally something like this would run $30 each at a printing place but I opted for an Engineering print instead.  It's printed on really thin paper and only prints in black in white.  I had already converted all of the pictures to black and white anyway so that they would flow more easily together.  It's not the highest quality print, but it still looks great in the frames, and hey, you can't beat $5 each. This project cost me no more than $60 total!  Which makes me incredibly happy. 

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Project Life . . . A Year In Review

Am I still keeping up with my Project Life albums?  You bet, but that's not what I'm sharing today.  For the past year my BFF Brandy and I have been working on her version of Project Life that she uses at Christmas gifts for relatives at the end of the year.  In 2012 we did it in a day and let's just say that was anything BUT  a pleasant day.  After I made it clear that I would NOT subject myself to that craziness again we tried a different approach.  Every month we made a point to sit down and work on a few pages.  Brandy's PL covers major events - birthdays, holidays, and vacations that occur through the year etc.  She uses SNAP albums and page protectors and generally that makes it go quicker and easier.  That said, we did not one, not two, but THREE of these albums this year (all the same).  So it was again a lot of work.  The end results were really awesome though.  I event took the time to cover the front and backs of the albums - paper is from DCWV's Vintage Collection and WRMK's Chalk something or other line.  Here they are!

Another labor of love with great results. Brandy was thrilled and I heard her Mamaw even cried when she received her book.  What more could you ever ask for?

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Good Life Project Living Creed

I saw this on Pinterest some time ago and was immediately smitten.  It was written by Jonathan Fields, who has lead an extraordinary life - you can read more about him here.  This creed, more than anything I have read in a long time, really spoke to me.  So I decided I wanted to put it in a frame somewhere where I could always refer to it.  I purchased a frame a month ago, and finally sat down this Sunday to make this.  I created the page in Photo Shop Elements, and then added it to the frame you see below.

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Project Life, Oh Where Have You Been?

Where did my Project Life updates go?  I'm sorry, it occurred to me today that I haven't posted anything about this since the end of January.  Project Life is still rocking along.  No big changes, I am still doing bi-weekly layouts using a ton of photo collages.  I am pretty much up to date, all pics have been printed, and I just have a bit of journaling to do for weeks 14-15.  So we're all good.  There are way too many pictures to show you so I'm going to choose my favorites from the last two months.

Love that my husband is journaling more!

  

Tons, I know!  Still in love with this project though.  I am linking up this week with The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday.  Stop by for a ton of Project Life inspiration.  I hope you have enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by today!

Project Life 2013 Begins!

This project was such a labor of love for me last year.  With the new year coming up, I knew I wanted to continue but I also know how much work went into those three jam packed albums, and I really wanted to figure out a way to scale it back some so I could get back a bit of my crafting time to well, craft other things. What I've decided to do is to do bi-weekly spreads.  Each 12 x 24 layout is going to cover two weeks instead of just one.  And so far, it's working.  I am still every bit of in love with Project Life as I was last year, only it doesn't feel all consuming any longer.    I really think this is going to work out well for us this year.

New monthly dividers!  I have too much fun making these to give them up!

 

Another thing I have started doing is using photo collages to get a bunch of pictures in one 6 x 4 space.  This normally would have been an insert of a beach trip we took at the beginning of the year, but I was able to cover it all in such a smaller space.  Underneath I've used a flip pocket to add a few more photos.  I heard about these little ingenious little things on the Two Peas board and quickly picked up some on Amazon.  They come in handy when you have just a few extra pictures you really want to use but don't want a full insert.

Lots of writing.  One of my goals for 2013 is to journal more and have my family journal more.  My mother in law did the journaling cards for the weekend the boys spent with her and their Auntie.  They took fabulous pictures too!

Go Falcons!  Okay, maybe next year.  They did win this game though!

 

Yes, I have quickly become a photo collage junky.  I'm trying to mix it up though.  You'll see color and black and white photos put together.  I've been playing a bit with different photoshop actions as well. 

And that's it.  The first four weeks of 2013 covered in four pages.  I LOVE it.  Totally caught up and not the least bit stressed about it.  I'm able to be a little more leisurely about taking pictures and putting it all together.  All in all I think 2013 is going to be a fabulous year!

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Project Life - The End of 2012

And it's a wrap!  Really, it is.  Okay, if I'm being completely honest there are like 2 or 3 journaling cards that need to be filled in (by my husband no less) but other than that it really is DONE.  I have to say that I am super proud of myself for starting this massive project and sticking with it.  There were definitely times I wanted to quit, but after watching my son pull these albums out day after day, week after week I realized how very important this is for our family.  

I finished the year with 3 albums!  Barely.  And wouldn't you know it, the BH Clementine albums I bought actually started falling apart. (insert gasp and then pissed off face here) I had one album that basically wouldn't close with the loops lining up so I ended up replacing all three.  Why?  Uniformity of course!  WRMK is my new found love and joy and I will use these for all of my PL albums from here on out.  Aqua is the word of the day, or should I say, the word of 2012.  Without any further adieu, here is the final week of 2012.

 

 

My Mother in law is a Christmas baby so she always gets her very own special birthday cake after Christmas dinner.  

Brandy and I look good in this photo.  I might have to scrap this one!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!