Project Life - Organizing Part 1 & Title Page

Since I failed miserably at PL last year...I am really trying to be more organized and less stressed this year.  I am definitely doing the weekly approach and I don't plan to just use my DSLR.  That I think was another major problem for me.  I kept thinking my iPhone pictures just were not that good but I know they are fine and I just need to remember it's about capturing the time not how good the picture was, or my depth of field or white balance, etc.  I am going in as a scrapbooker and not a photographer, lol.

Organization Pt 1

I'll talk about my station organization tomorrow but first let me talk about how I organize my thoughts, ideas and the planning of pages. I love the approach and the forms that Marcy Penner uses (see them here) so I took it a step further and created some.

Project Life Planner

I created a book, it's 8.5x11 and it has a light weight chipboard cover (I just covered it with pretty paper) it's probably as flimsy as a spiral notebook you would buy at the store.  I wanted something I could bend and really use, something I would have that I can plan out pages as I go. I created the pages in excel, one for the sketch of the two page spread and one for notes about the week at a glance.  I added in some calendars and binded it with my Bind-It-All.

I started off with a cover page of course...

Then I added a 2012 Calendar...

Then I added a Holiday Schedule and a place where I could put anything thing that I know will be coming up in 2012.

At the beginning of each month I have a calendar for that month and a place for notes.

This is the sketch sheet I created in excel, I told you it looks just like the one Marcy uses.

Across from that is the week review sheet, I can put the date in and list out anything important I took a picture of or just want to remember.  For instance today my son when with his father to Houston Texan's football game, he sent me some text pictures and I told him to save the ticket stub for me, so I made a reminder to get that from him when he brings my son home.

So that is my planner....I do use my iPad a lot, but I wanted to have my sketch sheet with me and my week review with me so I can jot down things or make notes of something I want to remember.

iPad Apps

I have looked ad so many different journal apps, I promise at one point I have downloaded 7, yes 7 of them.  There was always a feature I liked but then I realized I didn't want to make this difficult and I know I only wanted a journal. 

MOMENTO

I did keep one extra app Momento, I use this to filter all of my Facebook info, my Twitter account and my Instagram account, that way I always have a way to look at what I got going on, just in case I need more inspiration or possible fillers. It looks like this one screen shows all your feeds and then another lists them out by days.

EVERNOTE

This really is the easiest way for me to journal on my iPad, it saves the writing by day.  I can make notes all day, random thoughts, quotes or just crazy little things that go on, it's right at my finger tips at all times.  At the end of the day I email it home and then use it to respond to my Oh Joy email.

MY 2012 PROJECT LIFE TITLE PAGE

Since I didn't finish last year, I have the full kit pretty much but I knew I wanted to have more fun with it and add to it, so I am using it as my base this year but mixing in some of my own stash and some new things as well.

I created this really cute symbol silhouette of my family and  I even included the three pit bulls.  I know this book will be about our family but our dogs are a big part of our life as well so I knew they would need to be represented on any thing that represented our family. Another thing you can't really see is the camera, I have tons of them save and I want to some how incorporate a camera in my weekly pages, just a little something fun. 

I added a little clipping from a mini dictionary I found at a thrift store, it's just the definition of Family.

Here are our beautiful pits....

Our Traditional Early Christmas Gifts - Day 20 - 25 Days of Christmas

A little background on myself and my husband, we seem to give each other gifts early...I think last year was the only year that we made it to Christmas day.  BUT we had already showed each other the gifts we got each other prior, but we wrapped them for the sake of Christmas morning, for all intensive purposes.

I don't know why we do it, I cannot hold water when it comes to a gift and it never fails I can pretty much always guess what some one is giving me.  My brother is the same way, his wife calls us both gift ninjas.

Well this year my husband had to have a gift for me delivered to, guess who, me...{insert evil laugh here}.  So the FedEx package was delivered and I could not help myself, see I already know what it was, but I just had to open it.  It was sitting there calling my name...."April, open me, you know you want to, Justin won't find out, try me out"  And I cracked, I ripped open the FedEx package and eagerly opened my gift and to my surprise (not really) it was my blue tooth keyboard and case for my ipad.  I quickly read the directions, synced my iPad, took it for a quick spin and then placed all back in the box and even slid it back into the Fedex package.  I felt satisfied but then I was mad because I wanted it, how dare he tease me with a gift and not let me have it. lol

Here is text messages back and forth...

Okay so I guess I should show you my gift, right?  I really works great and I am so happy to have it.  Oh, wait how would I know that, it's a Christmas gift and Christmas isn't even here yet........DUH! I got it early, there was no sense in wrapping it up, I mean why waste the paper. :)

My screen looks really dirty in this picture, oops, guess I should have cleaned that first, good thing I don't do product photography, I would suck.