Project Life 2012: Week 8 & a Giveaway

I think we should start this week off with a giveaway.

Becky has generously shared with me a Cobalt Binder, Cobalt Core Kit, Cobalt Cardstock, and a Big Variety Pack of Photo Pocket Pages to giveaway to one of you! The products will ship from Amazon so in order to enter you will need to be a U.S. resident. Please leave a comment at the end of this post by Thursday CST. Don't forget to leave your email so that we can make sure you get your goodies. I'll announce a winner on Friday.

Here is the great news. You have lots of chances to win as many of the creative team members are also hosting this same giveaway today. Make sure you visit Becky's blog, here, to find your way to your other chances to win. Good luck!

Hello! This week I'll be sharing Week 8 which was for me the first week without an insert! A sick Owen meant a short week at work and with weekend visitors I didn't pick up my camera (Canon or iPhone) as much as I usually do.

The blacked out pictures are of my very soon to be sister-in-law in "the dress". You can understand why I'm not sharing online just yet :)

Since I had only a handful of stories to tell this week I tried to use several pockets for a story. Sometimes bringing them together with color.

Sometimes with a simple collage and one text box. I knew I didn't want an insert this week but since it was the end of basketball season I wanted to include more than one or two shots. I used Cathy Zielske's Tiny Templates No. 4 for my collage.

And sometimes by carrying over journaling & elements across pockets.

It seems I'm embracing more words this year. I think having my core kit journaling cards slotted in invites me to simply fill them in with my journaling. I love that this year it seems I'm capturing word as much as image.

It was freeing not having a ton of pictures to go through and really focus on a few simple stories. Usually my weeks are pretty full and this one feels like a space to breathe.

In case you were wondering here is where I'm at:

Complete & Shared: Weeks 1,2,3,7,8
Complete & Not Shared: Weeks 4,5,6,9
Journaling: Week 10
To Fill: Weeks 12,13
Pictures to Print: Weeks 11,14

I'm feeling a little pressure to wrap up the first quarter (Jan, Feb, March) quickly because 1) that would feel like a small victory given all the different directions I'm going these days and 2) Travis is coming quickly and I want to give myself permission to take a break once he arrives. My personal level of comfort of having week incomplete is 4 this year, which I'm already at, so I'd like to be as current as I can.

I recently read this excellent post, The rain is just the rain, by Andrea Scher of Superhero Journal. This week I've seen alot of chatter on Twitter, Instagram & Blogs about catching up on Project Life. I couldn't help but put the lesson of Andrea's post into this context.

Not being current with Project Life for many of us is simply a truth of the project. We all have competing priorities and limited time. However, instead of seeing this as a negative, as a failure, as something to be shamed by why not simply accept it for what it is and simply find the right tools.

Have you read the post, Time Spent on Project Life, by Michelle Wooderson? If not, you really should. I absolutely feel she has found the right tools. I believe on the 15th Lisa Truesdell, aka gluestickgirl, will have her April Captured Lesson focused on catching up. I'm looking forward to reading it and seeing what her right tools are.

As for me, I have three weeks to fill. I'm going to challenge myself to keep it simple and try to repeat what I did here in Week Eight. I don't love it any less than my other weeks and that mindset needs to be own of my personal tools.

Have a wonderful week!

Monica