Sunday, January 16, 2011

Living in 2011

This year I have committed to four year long journeys One Little Word, Project Life, Move More Eat Less and Library of Memories (read about 2011 here). I will be sharing more about each of these & how they are a part of my life over the next few weeks.

The first one I would like to share with you is Project Life.

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It has probably been 10 months since I would say I have scrapbooked. Not one of Owen's stories have been told since he's been born. I've been thinking alot about it and could easily say there hasn't been time. But truly there never is time, we make time. What time I had I gave to quilting. A wonderful community has been cultivated in the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild and it was easy to neglect my hobby that didn't have a local community.

But if I said that was the reason I'm pretty sure I would be lying. As my creative spirit thristed for time with pictures & stories I realized I had been making it too hard and my motivation was misplaced. Everything I created had to original & had to be photographed to be blogged. My motivation was no longer telling my story and (I'm embarassed to say) had become to put it online.

I never consciously decided to take a break from scrapbooking but I believe my creative spirit was no longer inspired because my motivation was all wrong.

Time really is a good thing. I've come to realize I miss scrapbooking terribly because I miss telling my story. While I enjoy quilting & love being part of the DMQG community it is not my priority. This year time spent on my hobbies will reflect that.

I am excited that Project Life is my baby step back into the world of scrapbooking. I am making this 100% no pressure.

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For me, it is not:
  • a 365, picture a day
  • about perfect pictures
  • about new product
  • about obligation
  • about making it original
For me, it is:
  • about awareness
  • about reflection on Sunday afternoons
  • about my SLR, instax & iPhone
  • about capturing snippets of life
  • about using old product
  • about my family
  • about making it easy

I will be working on my week on Sunday afternoons (a good motivator to get chores done) and I will be using bits & pieces of past Studio Calico kits to supplement my Becky Higgins kit.

I will be posting my pictures on Flickr in the collection, Project Life 2011, & will not double post here on the blog.

I will be participating in Project Life Tuesday over on The Mom Creative blog and in the Big Picture Classes Community for Project Life.





I am so very excited about capturing my life in 2011 with Project Life & layouts which I may not share them all. This year I'm reclaiming scrapbooking for me.

lovemon

5 comments:

Melanie said...

You really have a beautiful way with words. Your posts are always from the heart. I should receive my book this week. It was late due to bad weather. I love that you are setting up your book exactly how it works for you.

Anonymous said...

Whoot! So glad to have you back :) I can't wait to see what you make of this and the other projects, you have such a unique and Monica take on things :) (If it makes you feel any better, I'm still waiting to scrap all but Claire's baby album!)

Stephanie Reid said...

I love your attitude towards Project Life! I'm not taking photos everyday either, that's overwhelming for me, so I'm trying to incorporate little bits from our week. Thanks for the inspiration!

boydfamily said...

Love your new masthead!

Nancy Wyatt said...

Love your thoughts!! YOu sure do have a way with words! Love the blog header!! I have so many SC kits that I need to be using and so you have inspired me to incorporate that into my PL! Since we don't have kids I had found it hard to want to participate but finally I said it was time! For now I am simply taking photos and making notes on them in my flickr account. I hope to soon get out some materials to start journaling, I got lazy ordering my book and then they sold out. I was so on the fence about the size really, 12x12 seems so big to me I tend to scrapbook in smaller size but recently started to do 12x12 pages so I suppose I have just been giving it way too much thought! LOL

Anywho, thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us and I look forward to learning more! Hope to see you on WWF again soon ;)
Hugs from Conroe, tX!