project life: beginnings

I decided to take a different approach to scrapbooking this year. As much as I love the fancy, artsy scrapbook pages, I’ve come to the personal awareness that for me personally, and our stories, I really prefer simpler pages that combine journaling with images. And I love the idea of using scrapbooks a bit more traditionally in order to include ephemera from now for future reminiscing. You know, like things that remind me what something costs today or what the sprite logo looked like in 2012, or 1985 (do you remember what it looked like? Cause I like the sprite in you )!
With that in mind, I decided to take on the project life project. I’m hoping to use the book to do just that, combine the general every day stuff with the special stuff and the ephemera. I really admire the way Ali Edwards does this with this project because she takes the time to add every day details (like Starbucks’ sleeves and so forth).
So this is the first page to the album:

While I opted to buy my own page protectors from We R Memory Keepers instead of the “official” project life pages (honestly, sometimes being in Canada can be a pain in ass because things are just a little less accessible), I’m looking forward to the fact that this choice forces me to personalize things a bit more. Let’s face it, it’s really easy to end up copying someone else instead of doing your own thing, particularly in a formatted structure like this is. Obviously the structure is part of the appeal, but I’m hoping to find a middle ground.
The idea behind the project is that every week I add a little something, something to the album. After creating the December Daily album, I realized that I’m always telling our (Paul & me—our family) story and I don’t want it all to be just me telling the story, so he’s been charged with writing part of the story. He, being the good sport that he is, has agreed to do so, as long as I remind (read: nag) him!
So that’s it, my big project for recording the year ahead. Being a lover or photo albums my entire life, I’m looking forward to it!