Project Life...Week 1 (a learning curve).

Sharing my first week of Project Life...
As with anything new, there is a learning curve. Here are a few things that i discovered along the way this week:

• At first I wasn't sure what to do. I printed out what I thought was the most 'important' photo that summed up what (in my mind) was the focus of our week as 4x4. That photo up there of Allie just makes my heart soar...she came home from school and found me reading in my bedroom, plopped down and said she just wanted to 'chit chat' for a bit. we got to talking about her day/her happenings/'stuff', and i snapped a few pics while she wasn't looking. (she's laughing in the photo...and i stuck a note to the BACK of this 4x6 insert about our chat to keep it 'just for us') Printed the others at 2x2 and cropped them a bit bigger to leave a nice white frame around them.
• I didn't use every photo I took this week. As I've mentioned before, my hope to keep this stress-free and more about the stories is to only use 1 page protector per week instead of 2. This worked great, and left lots of room for WORDS...which was perfect. My extra pics went into a 'filler/random' file on my computer for weeks that I may need an extra.
  
• I used some buttons/wood veneer this week, and it makes my cards not quite fit into the slots. Well, they fit...but they seem to want to creep out of the page protector, lol. Next week, I think I'll try flat embellishments in the sleeves and if i want to add something bulkier, I'll add it OUTSIDE of the pocket.
  
• Not all of my cards are perfectly sized...which means that you can see a bit of them here and there peeking through from the other side of the page. I'm totally ok with that.
• Found that neutrals work best for me, with punches of color. I'm going to stick with grey/kraft/white for my base cards and add in color here and there. At first the 3x4 cards I'd set aside for this week were 'louder' and I was struggling a bit. As soon as I reverted to the basics, it all fell together.
  

One of my favorite things about this so far is how it has given me cause to reevaluate what is going on in my surroundings. Mike was out of town for work, and my mom stopped by to cook her infamous baked pork chops for Allie and i...so i snapped a pic of her hands while dipping/breading. She was like 'what the heck are you doing?', and I just laughed and walked away. I would have NEVER thought to document something like that. Just like I wouldn't ever have had somewhere to jot down how dang cool I think it is that President Obama joined Instagram this week...but I journaled about it on that 'random' card I made using my Silhouette.

I also took a screen shot of a routine that we have...our 'Morning Family Text Message'. On the days that I work, i group text Mike & Allie to make sure they are up and moving around before I clock in...sometimes they are grumpy, sometimes witty. Either way, it's part of what we do...and I'd never considered making a note of it until now.
Used my old typewriter lots...mixed in with my own handwriting. Can't wait to have Mike & Allie add their own notes. Played around with my Silhouette Cameo to make the January 2012 and the arrow. (i have an arrow 'problem' lol...i could use them on just about everything)

All in all, I had a blast while working on this on Sunday evening.
Looking forward to what next week brings.
:)

(if you have questions about anything I've used/done/mentioned...please ask in the comments section and I will answer ASAP!)

side note: i love the flexibility/style of the Design F page protectors, which are what I've used here. Also planning on trying a few other styles out, but this one allows a great place to use those 2x2 photos as well as kind of break things up a bit so they aren't intimidating. I just look at each 3x4 window as it's own little area!