Project Life Alternative

Like many scrappers, I started the year out with enthusiasm for Project Life (or P365...whichever you prefer). I was thoughtfully taking a daily photo and regularly transferring them into my well organized Project Life laptop folders. That lasted 3 weeks. Boy was I proud of my stick-to-it-ness. I felt like super-mom!

Life started to get busy again. I started the Valentine's album for my hubby. My kid had his medication adjusted and my hubby started having seizures more frequently. The cat started protesting the stress by peeing on the floor. As you can imagine, I started completely spacing the daily photo taking task I'd assigned myself.  I forgave myself for it... a lot.

After Valentine's Day, I realized or maybe accepted that, while some people have the mad skills for the full on Project Life, I don't. I want to, but I have other things that absolutely come first before scrapping. Because of my full plate I have to choose what stories are important to tell. I have to choose which scrapping projects are most important to me. That choice was fairly easy: The Grow with Love Series for the big and little guy in my life and preserving my dad's baby book. Oh, and probably something for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary in June. Project Life was the very last thing on my list.

I LOVE the idea of Project Life, which is telling the stories of our everyday. Telling the stories that get lost when we scrap birthdays, holidays and big life events. To know a person, you really need to hear the story about the time they watched all 145 episodes of The Office on Netflix in three days or how every other night their husband makes a Ben and Jerry's run (my favorite flavor is vanilla). The small tid bits, like how I always drive on particular road because of it's huge willow trees and fallen down red barn, make me happy. We all have a public presence that is made up of our private, behind closed door selves. Project Life is about taking that private self and putting it out into the world for posterity... or at least for your family history.

I have been thinking about my scrapping goals lately.  When you are faced with the whole life-death thing, you think silly things: like what you want your step-children and your child to know about their dad. I find these things are very mundane-- like how my husband organizes the DVDs in alphabetical order. It's part of who he is... and the kiddo and I un-arrange them because that's who we are. The main bullet point being that's the importance of project life: The whole is a sum of its parts. I decided I needed to come up with a way to tell those stories while working on my other projects.

So, I've decided to a lighter version of Project Life...   For me, the structure of the project is supposed to keep you focused and motivated. If I left it up when I had time or when the story crossed my mind I would never, ever get it done. I know me, I know my faults and limitations. I need a guide for the journey or else I get lost.  In bed last night (I was obviously awake. I have a bad habit of staying awake long enough to make sure my husband doesn't die in his sleep) the format hit me. Instead of having the photo inspire the scrapping, why not have the words be the prompt? Why not create the words in alphabetical order? There are 26 words in our alphabet... so why not tell 26 stories?

I'll call it Project Life-A-Bet. Each week, I'll scrap a letter of the alphabet. I wrote down the words I will be using and will share them with you. If you want to do something like this I don't think you should necessarily use my words, but surely they can be a guide if you like. "A" will obviously be my first page, for which I've picked the word "Aroma". Smell is one of the most powerful senses. I know what my kid smells like, I know what my hubby smells like, my cats, my mom and dad, my mother-in-laws house, what the seasons smell like, what my hometown smelled like... smell is an integral part of our memories. There are whole industries dedicated to aromas... I will be scrapping the aromas that define my life.

After that will be "B", so on and so forth. Feel free to join me in this project (and share your ideas and layouts). I'd love to know how you make Project Life fit into your busy world! Have you come up with an alternative that works for you?

P.S. Tomorrow is a new Digi Files!! I'm so excited!!
 

Scrap friends?

I don't have any real life friends who like to scrap, but I would really like that. The truth is that my husband is probably tired of listening to The Digi Show with me. He's wonderful for letting me ramble on endlessly about all things digi scrap-- best husband ever-- but I'm sure he'd be happy if I found a friend or even crop group with which to have the bulk of these conversations. Or maybe I will have to teach him how to scrap? Ha!

Frankly, I'm not good with the forums. I try, but I don't come off well. Since it takes me 20,000 hours to write on paragraph and because I get so distract-- oh, shiny!-- ed, forums are a difficult place for me to connect with other scrappers. You know that person who gets a pity reply? That's probably my post. I can't figure out if I'm just boring, snobby, weird or all three. After being in the trenches of Chiari and Autism for so long, I have a hard time forging good decent first impressions online. I'm also such a geek that I'm sure I come off as a big, know-it-all dork.

I decided to look for crops in my area. By my area I mean in a 50 mile radius around my house. Of the three events I found, only one looks like non-business event. If you are trying to sell paper scrapping supplies to a captive audience, having a digital scrapper showing off all the money saving perks of the hobby probably wouldn't be welcomed. I did shoot out an "would it be bad for business if I attended" email to two of the crop organizers. The third is really out of my budget travel and registration wise.

I do love the idea of meeting other scrappers face-to-face out my house. It would be nice to focus on something I enjoy for a few hours once a month. I want to get out of the house for recreation occasionally. I want to scrap without having to cook something in between. But I'm not sure that I will find a good fit anywhere because I scrap on my computer and have no plans on buying anything at an event. I just wanna eat and breathe scrap with other adults.

Maybe I'll just have to make my own group? Do other digi scrappers scrap off line at crops? Do digital scrapping and real life groups just not go together? Is digi scrapping a hobby where all your scrap friends live in your computer? Is it normal to want to meet other digi scrappers in person?

I'm updating this to add one of the replies I've received:

Hi carrie....I don't have an issue at all with digital scrappers
  We just ask that u bring your own extension cord.  We actually do have a digital scrapbook weekend vendor....heritage makers.  Hope to meet you soon.


Yippee! I'm off to google the vendor now!! 

Let's get schooled!

Wanna know how geeky I am? I'm so geeky that I've been thinking about going back to college to study graphic design because I want to scrap better. Sure, I could take some of the scrap classes on the web, but if I'm going to shell out a few hundred dollars to do that, why not get a grant for a scrap education? The prerequisite English courses and the math would actually help my journaling and my critical thinking. (I need all the help I can get!) I'm not aiming for a career, I just want to be a better memory keeper.

I found that our community college offers a degree in the area of design that scrapbookers use. Isn't that crazy? Isn't it wonderful?! So perhaps in the fall I'll be a student again... Part of me thought the idea was funny because  ... well, my family. I recently had a talk with one of my nieces about her after high school plans. (I'm pretty sure she has none, or has other plans beside college but won't own up to them-- everyone has their own path, but if you can't own it you probably are walking the wrong one). She seems to have the fall back answer of "two-year college" and maybe here. There's a chance we will go to the same college! That made me laugh.

I expect my side of the family to make fun of the fact that I'd be studying graphic design because everyone knows you can't do anything with an art degree (gee, I've heard that before and learned later it wasn't true!).
Yet, here I am... ready to re-enroll. The more I think about it the more I want to do it. It speaks to me. Scrapbooking speaks to me. It's where I go to be happy. Plus it'd be really cool to learn what I love and not have to pay for it (I'd qualify for grants out the ying-yang).

In other news, I was surprised by my hubby over the weekend. Seems he matched my modest scrapbook supply budget for the month. I got some fabulous kits at Oscraps.com and Scrap Orchard.

Sara Gleason aka Zinnias and Swallowtails came out with a beautiful kit called Tea Rose, available at The Lily Pad. I adore her work so much and am in the middle of her Grow with Love: Marriage Edition. They have a kids edition I will be doing for my son's birthday in April. I HAD to have her new kit. The only problem? The Lily Pad does not like mistakes. If you make two mistakes while trying to checkout (common for someone with dyslexia), you get banned from making purchases until an administrators unlocks your shopping cart. In this case, I had the remaining balance on my gift card wrong by a few cents. By the time I realized it... LOCKED OUT!!

That would be fine if it didn't take so long to resolve the issue. By the time the administrator fixed it my scrapping time was gone. It really sucked because I had created my layout around that particular kit. Instead of working on my hubby's special album, I decided to scrap my mom's photo:








I plan on having it printed and sent to her as a special surprise. She's had it rough lately, so I know it would lift her spirits.

Until the next time I can geek out with you!!!

My very first prints

First of all, I'm starting this blog with a big "Happy Valentine's Day"!!!

Yay!!!

 

My sweet surprise from my hubby-- CREAM EGGS!!!!

Everyone should be so lucky to be as loved as I am! It's my wish for every single person on Earth, really. Love rocks. So does scrapbooking, by the way. For my Valentine's Day gift for my husband I combined several of my favorite things: My kid, love, writing and digi scrap. I am proud to say that I've printed my first ever digital layouts.

I was very worried about how the layouts would turn out in hard copy. Thankfully The Daily Digi has a ton of information about printing layouts. A few days before I was ready to take that leap of faith into printing, The Digi Show devoted an entire episode to printing. Those gals really gave me the reassurance, confidence and bits of information I was lacking to enter into the unknown territory of paying for printed layouts.

I think printing for the first time is something I'll remember forever for many reasons. It made digital memory keeping more than a hobby-- it made it a living history of me and my family. It is a living history that our whole family can enjoy in the present and in the future. Having a husband with a terrible brain issue, I feel it extra important to keep a running record of our life. These specific prints are about our relationship (from the Grow with Love: Marriage Edition). Now all the kids will know our history not just as parents, but as people. And the idea that the album may inspire our children to be inspired by love, to learn from what we've learned about love and loving inspires me even more. Printing takes this offline and brings it into our world, making a solitary hobby into a family activity.

(Heard in my house recently: You should scrap this [mom or wife]!)

It's interesting to note that whilst I was awaiting my layouts to arrive in the mail, my father sent me a letter from a relative that keeps our family tree. (He's traced the family roots all the way back to 1000 A.D.) The letter was sent because this relative of mine was given an old family bible. If you are unfamiliar, it used to be (and maybe some still do this) that a family bible was where important family events were recorded-- births, deaths, marriages, and special achievements -- probably the original form of scrapbooking, really. Scrapping the Good Book. Anywho, the letter from this relative stated that the bible was in a terrible state of disrepair. He removed the pages with the family history, threw out bible then transcribed all the information from the aging papers. One item included in the bible was my Great-Great-Great Grandfather's citizenship certificate. He was naturalized in 1862, then joined the Union Army New Youk Mounted Riflemen's company in 1863. He was discharge from the army shortly after the end of the Civil War.

Without memory keeping, genealogy would be a giant pain in the rear.  We wouldn't know the stories that transform our ancestors into actual people, family members even. I can stare at my family tree all I want, read the comments, but I wouldn't get the story without the journaling, clippings and records kept in that bible. That letter and it's wealth of information reinforced why I scrapboo;. Sure, I love the art and creativity, but it is so much more than that...

Long story less long, I received my prints on the 13th from Persnickety Prints. With bated breath, I opened the package. I pulled the prints out of their nifty plastic cover:






They were simply stunning. I cried a little. When my husband saw his gift he cried a little... they were proclaimed the most special thing ever, the most touching thing anyone has ever done for him. Now he's excited for the rest of the layouts to printed and to see what I come up with next. Once this album is done, I'm moving onto two new projects: The Grow with Love: Kid's Edition and scrapping my father's baby book (which was the only item I inherited from my Grandmother when she passsed... a probably the best gift ever.)

Enjoy your Valentine's Day!!

P.S. Thanks to Katie from The Daily Digi for featuring my layout on today's post. You can see the post HERE.