Taking the plunge
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| A card to me, from Shelby |
Scrapbookers all over the world have been doing something called Project Life for a few years now. It's a concept created by Becky Higgins and the general idea is that you focus on documenting everyday life and (try) to incorporate daily photos. I've resisted the project ... for a number of reasons. The first reason is because it's most often done in a traditional, physical form. Since discovering digital scrapbooking about two years ago, I've given up traditional, paper scrapping. I love digital. It's what works for me; it's what makes sense. In the years I did paper scrapbooking, I have a small number of pages to show for myself. But in less than two years being 100% digital, I have hundreds of pages I've created. Clearly, switching to digital is what I needed to do.
The second reason I've been hesitant to take the plunge is because of my hectic travel schedule. I haven't been sure if I could tackle a project that required so much daily or weekly attention. But this past year, I have managed to keep up with taking a photo a day (Project 365), which has given me courage to do something like Project Life.
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| Inside the card |
So what actually pushed me over the edge? What made me really wanna do it, after all this indecision? It was a card Shelby made for me. The week of Thanksgiving I was sick, super sick. And Shelby made me a picture and attached a card to it that read "Feel detr (better). Love, Shelby." As I looked over this card, I was reminded how fleeting time is. Shelby won't always be making me these elaborate cards. Someday soon, she won't miss spell the word better. And before I know it, her ability to draw will be even greater than it is now. This little piece of Shelby captures who she is at this very moment. I never, ever want to forget how loving, compassionate and artistic she was (is) at the age of seven. As this was all swimming around in my head, I knew the solution just had to be Project Life. I want to collect all the pieces of our life together as a family and be able to look back at them next year, the year after and 20 years from now. I'm ready to commit to documenting the every day.
My plan is to do Project Life a lot like Ali Edwards does it: making it more of a week at a glance. That way, if I don't have photos or ephemera for a certain day, I can just focus on other -- more meaningful -- days of that particular week.
Also, I'm planning on being forgiving. One of the ways I was able to accomplish a photo a day project this years was I purposely lowered my standard. I took all of the photos with my iPhone and focused on content not quality. It's not to say I didn't want GREAT photos (and in some case I got them), but any picture is better than no picture.
I’ve already purchased everything I need to get started. And now I just have to decide, do I start next week or do I wait for 2012? Either way I’m beyond excited. I can’t wait to see what 365 days of our lives will look like in one place. What do you think, when should I start? And if you have any advice on how to manage Project Life if you travel, a lot, that would also be helpful!
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Note: There's now digital versions of Project Life. You can find them here. Even so, I really feel strongly about doing the physical version. I'd like to be able to include my family in the process, mostly Shelby, and that can be better accomplished with a physical project.