Sunday, December 30, 2012

Love,hate,love,hate,love

BEFOE I START THIS IS A LONG POST SO GO AND GRAB A COFFEE OR IF YOU"RE LIKE SUSAN SOME CHOCOLATE.

Yes that was my feeling towards Project Life. A love/hate relationship.
I started in the beginning of this year which was great and easy as i am always on holidays, i had the kit  i had the photos as it was New Years and there is always lots going on. I was doing a two page spread, easy peasy

Then i went back to work and things became more difficult, some were of my own doing.
I like the fancy stuff, i like the cute stuff, i wanted my pages to have lots of embellishments, i like making my own embellishments. (ok i know that you DONT have to do this and its all about the photos and the journalling) but i LIKE it.
I get to use lots of these
and these and but wait there's more - these
I have cute little pots on my desk and old tea boxes to store all my bits in (die cuts and pins from Leena)
Ok by now you have probably guessed that i spend way too much money on "STUFF" but hey i like it.
Digressing as usual
By about week 15 i was not liking this PL thingy very much. Stressing to get photos, then it took me one night to print the photos then at least two nights to do a two page spread.
stressing, getting behind,stressing, getting behind,stressing,getting behind.
and if you know, me as strange as it seems if i get behind on something i don't sit and catch up (that comes later) but it puts me off doing other creative stuff as my brain is saying you cant sew or do a 12x12 Lay out as your Pl is not up to date, so nothing gets done. Zip,nil.nada, O, nothing.

So something had to give and let me tell you it wasn't going to be my 12x12 LO's as i had only just discovered what i am going to call my scrapbook idol SHIMELLE and it wasn't going to be my sporadic card making or my even more sporadic quilt/patch-working, it had to be my PL....BUT....
ho hum when i sat down and started doing it i loved it, my kids and Andrew love it, even my non crafty friends ask to see my albums, and where else could i go to see how many times Joe had got badly burned or badly cut at work (its quite funny really looking back throughout the year seeing all of his injuries each one seeming to be worse than the last one).
mmmm what was one to do
then i had a light bulb moment
i will only do one page a week
so week 37 was my last double page spread
and hello Project Life LOVE LOVE LOVE 
yep this works the best for me and i love it, one page a week, it takes me one night to do so that leaves me with plenty of time to do other crafty pursuits.
I add in two pages here and there as i am very lucky my kids and husband are well trained and always bring me back paraphernalia from whereever they have been which i love to stick in
So there we are, i am up to date, stress free (ok don't mention the monthly quilt kit which is still waiting to be cut and sewn) and loving Project Life
So i say, "Bring on 2013" i am ready for you.
and that is week 51
phew if you're reading this you made it to the end
have you had enough of my ramblings, hope not coz my next post is all about Journal Your Christmas
thanks for stopping by.
xx

5 comments :

suzitee said...

Linda, I can't tell you how HAPPY I am that you found your PL groove :) As you know, I've been a bit the same with the love/hate thing, but once I found my groove, I was pretty happy to keep going. I look at all the piles of photos from years gone by, just waiting to be scrapped, and then look at this years...all printed, journaled and in albums, and that makes me VERY happy! I also use my album to check when things happened :) Can't wait to peek at your album again...and bring on JYC post! Can't wait!

Tracey said...

Wonderful Linda.......Love it!!

Scarlett said...

Oh Linda, this is a really wonderful and insightful post about PL. I like that #1 you were honest. No sugar coating about your experience and what worked and didn't work. #2 you made the project work for you and I like that. I'm really drawn to the daily capturing of PL and use my phone endlessly for these kind of moments are they full blown scrap page worthy photos?? Most of the time not but i still want them out of my hone and somewhere. I think you've really helped me know I can do this is in some type of capacity - for me I'd probably go even smaller since I already scrap smaller than 12x12 anyhoo. I'm an itty bitty memeory person like that LOL. Thanks for sharing the link for this on Instagram - now I can follow you here too. :) glad to have a new cyber friend in you. xo Scarlett a.k.a kndr2tch P.S. - How did you get your Instagram feed to your blog? I'd love to add mine but have no clue how to do this. Would love any help you could offer. Now how's this for a comment LOL.

dawn said...

Hi Linda,

WOW these pages are so awesome, LOVE all the Christmasy papers on them. Looks so festive and MERRY!! Of course the collages are the best, so glad you use them too.

I know what you mean about the love/hate with this project. This happens to me at times too but for some reason it is the ONLY thing I've stayed this committed to for so long.

SO HAPPY THAT YOU FOUND A WAY TO LOVE IT AGAIN AND TRY IT. YIPPEE!! I'm so proud of you ! It is so nice to look back at that full year of memories. I also agree with Susan, we use ours for checking back on things too.

Good luck with it again this year, should be a breeze now that you know what works.

Thanks so much for your comment on my post, would love for you to visit and look thru my albums. Would love to see yours too!! Maybe one day it will happen.

BRING ON JYC!!

Hope said...

Your PL looks wonderful! Great decision to cut down to one page spreads, and enable yourself to start loving it again.