Saturday, January 26, 2013

Thoughts and Reflections

*warning...lots of text*

The last few months have been ones of thoughts and reflections for me. I have been seriously thinking about the direction I want to go with my scrapping and creating ( and really life in general if I want to get real about it). There are so many things I want to do, but instead of spreading my time around, I find myself focusing on and spending too much time on things that get me no where. There is alot of talk about One Little Word around. For me this year and I know it's one that has been used over and over by many people, but it is BALANCE! I want to spend time doing the things I love, learning more of the things I want to learn and setting priorities in life.
Let's start with scrapping and creating....(in particular Project Life)

Last year, I started a Project Life type thing. I failed miserably at it even though I started off really enjoying it and loving the concept of it. Upon thinking about it, some of the reasons I failed were these:

1. Forgot to take photos some days and then forgot most days.
2. Got behind in the weeks and then it just got too overwhelming to catch up, so I never did ( I think I stopped sometimes in April).
3. Obsessed too much about the "look" of it.
4. Didn't know what to include most weeks and things were starting to sound and get boring for me.

So here's what's going to happen for 2013....

I'm going to start Project Life again, but I'm going to do things differently and I'm going to do them in a way that works better for me. Also, in light of my OLW (Balance), I'm going to include many of the things that I'd like to do right into my Project Life book. So to combat some of the issues I had last year these are my thoughts...

1. I got the Project365 app for my iphone. It seemed like the easiest thing for me right now. I like the idea of taking a photo a day. I have my phone with me all the time. It sends me a reminder to take a photo if I haven't. It keeps everything on a calendar and will serve as a good record. Now even though I actually have these photos, I'm not going to use most of them for my Project Life book because I'm not going to worry about having and documenting a photo a day in that book. That just got way too stressful for me and also it will relieve another problem that I have with my scrapbooking. You see, I am, was, still might be...an event scrapper. But, it's starting to get boring for me. Every album I look at that I've done is the same thing, same events, same order ( because I do yearly books). So now, I'm going to include those events into my Project Life and leave them out of my albums for the most part. So some weeks in Project Life might be event ridden, some might be total randomness if that's what strikes my mood. But it won't be a Photo a Day! For my scrapbooking albums, here are my thoughts...finish up the ones that I started for 2012. For 2013, I will still do one album for Renee. This one will include events for her as it will be hers to take one day. I will do albums for the grandkids, that may be a combination of random and events. I want to do wedding albums for myself and Laya. I want to do some sort of family album, but I'm not sure what form this will yet take. *More thought required on this one*

2. I'm going to desperately try and keep up with the weeks in Project Life book as I know that for some reason falling behind causes me to want to stop. Strange because I scrap WAY behind in my albums and it doesn't seem to bother me. Maybe this is something that I just have to "get over".

3. Last time I was too concerned about how everything looked. I wanted to make the whole thing look like a scrapbook. This all took tons of time. This time what I'd like to do is use much of the stuff that I have around here. I have a mountain of materials and I really need to use them. So I'm going to try and make my own little inserts. They most likely won't be fancy or take alot of time and thought. I'm not going to worry so much about being all "matchy/matchy". I am accumulating a pile of stamps that I never seem to use in scrapbooking, but I'd like to start using them in Project Life. I still reserve the right to print off and use cute things that I find, but I'm not going to obsess about finding "just the right thing" for each page. If it happens, it happens. *After reading this over, it's sounding like making all those inserts will take more time. I'll see how this goes and revise as needed, because seriously, searching for those on-line freebies and then figuring out how to print them really did take alot of time* I think I will set some kind of limit on this, like find one good thing a week. I'll share those when I find them!

4. Now, as for what I am going to include each week in my Project Life Book and how it relates to Balance, here are my thoughts.... There are things creative wise, life wise, and interest wise that I want to spend more time on. I want to focus more on health in 2013. I've had some rather bad things happening lately and I need to take care of all of these and be mindful of them. I want to read more. I want to focus more on learning about photography. I want to art journal more. I want to find some new, healthy recipes to try. These are all things that will be going into my Project Life. I like the idea of including a weekly update insert of all the important events that happened over the week (or non-important). I bought a little book where you can write just a few lines everyday of something that happened. The book spans 5 years and I think it will be fun to compare each day with the year previous to see what you were doing. But every week it will also be very helpful to write a weekly review insert ( provided that I remember to actually write in it everyday) I'm going to keep it close at hand so I don't forget.

So all that being said, here is my first page for January. It's the only thing I've done so far..a title page I guess you could call it. I guess I'm already really behind, but I'm getting over it! LOL!

6 comments:

Buffy Burnside said...

Hi Charlotte, as long as you enjoy it and it turns out how you want it not how someone else says its suppose to be (learned that the hard way lol)....then its all good. I have to say I love the first page!

Lynn said...

I love your honesty and sincerity in your post Char. It's finding what "You" want to do and what's important for "You". Have fun on your journey, and keep us all updated!!

Sharon Fritchman said...

Hi Charlotte! I know that the same exact things would happen to me!!! I admire those who can do PL and keep up with it! And I would obsess about how it looks, just like you! I hope that yours turns out better this year, and if you only get a part of it done, don't worry!!! (easy for me to say - HaHaHa!!!!!)

Tracey said...

Hi Charlotte....I enjoyed reading your post ! I think we all feel like that at some stage. I love the idea of project life, but have not gone there because I think I would feel like you do! Great first page!

KellyCreates said...

So exciting as you clarify your intentions and embark on a new scrapbooking (and life) journey this year! we are so similar...project 365 etc is very daunting to me and I can relate to much of what you expressed in your post, Char. Looking forward to seeing what happens for you :)

Cindy Gay said...

Great page and elements!