Project Life beginning
I've been trying to be proactive recently with my memory-keeping. I've started my wedding scrapbook (gotten all the papers, printed the photos, organized the memorabilia, created about 10 layouts). I've gotten really motivated to DO SOMETHING with the memorabilia I've kept over the years. And I really want to get my kids' lives in albums, too. I've recently discovered Project Life and I'm SO IN LOVE with the idea. I just don't have time to spend an entire evening on one or two scrapbook layouts these days (or, when did I ever?). I've ordered (thank you tax return money!) both of the Project Life kits and plan to use one for each child's first year. I have so many things saved from the three years James and I have been blessed to be parents of Emma and Kasey and I want to do more with the things I've saved than just gather dust. So ... I've taken a few minutes each day to go through some old files of images from my early days as momma, to kick off Emma's album. Here are a few pictures (these are SO pre-Amanda Kay Photography) I'll use to highlight the days Emma lived in my belly. They're sized to 3x4 so I can cut them and fit them in some of the smaller slots in the Project Life sleeves. It was really fun to see these pictures in progression ... I'd never looked at them this way before and I can't wait to see them in an album next to some journaling about this Emma pregnancy. I have pages from my pregnancy journal that I'm going to scan in and print, plus I'll include excerpts from this very blog, my Emma journal and I also plan to ask James to write a few thoughts. The journaling cards from the Project Life kits are small -- I know he can think of a few memories to jot down on them. 
The font I used on these pictures is a free font from Creating Keepsakes. I am a huge fan of Ali Edwards and this font is her handwriting. I was so happy to find a link for it when I was browsing her site for Project Life inspiration (she also uses the Project Life kits for some of her scrapbooking). I love her handwriting and am excited to be able to use it on my home projects! I used it to write the weeks on these pictures and only wrote on one image because I plan for both of the pictures for that measurement time to be near each other and also because I plan to use the stickers, date stamps and journaling cards that are included in each Project Life kit to write more detail about each stage/week of the pregnancy.
The images here are not artistic or even well exposed/composed at all. My photographer self cringes at many of them, wishing I'd taken the time to work a little harder at capturing this belly growth ... but my mommy self (and my memory-keeping soul) doesn't care that they're not the type of pictures I take today. Incorrectly exposed/composed pictures still hold so much emotion and memory for me and it's the memories I'm saving, not my photographic skill at the time.
Also, most of these pictures are taken while I was at work, by my friend Sue. It was a fun tradition for us to get these snapshots every day during break (I was lucky enough to do the marketing and PR for a private high school back then, before I became a mommy and a business owner). So the backgrounds? If it looks like we're in an old high school, it's because we are! Old carpet from the 70s, water coolers, ancient refrigerators and all. :)
I have a few other pictures from that 25th week. More from that doctor's appointment and I'll journal and write more using the pictures. Plus, that picture of my sister-in-law and me? We have a few others from that special night. That was the night she and James' brother Jeremiah told us that they were expecting THEIR first child! So in that belly of Amy's is Emma's cousin Sam.
Here's where the pictures start to get less and less flattering. Beware. Eek.
I totally remember taking this picture. I felt terrible -- so huge, so swollen, so puffy. But as the weeks passed, we had started to forget to take the pictures and it ended up being a thing where wherever we remembered to take them, we did it right then and there. Sometimes it was late at night, sometimes it was on the way out the door for an errand.
Wow. Scary. My mother-in-law took these pictures above. I'm so glad she did, though I definitely am not super fond of how DONE I look with being pregnant. So puffy! Only one week after this is when I went into labor.
So here we go. I'm going to try to keep track of my Project Life and memory-keeping progress. It'll be slow, so don't hold your breath. I still have two crazy kids and a business to manage, but I also feel that keeping track of our life and our memories is important. I've been given so many blessings in this life and doing things like this is a way for me to honor each of those blessings. And cherish the memories, as my kids seem to be growing way too quickly for me to be able to rely on my own mind to remember all of our special milestones.
What's your favorite way to keep track of your family's memories? Do you scrapbook? Do you blog? Take photos and slide them into albums?
The font I used on these pictures is a free font from Creating Keepsakes. I am a huge fan of Ali Edwards and this font is her handwriting. I was so happy to find a link for it when I was browsing her site for Project Life inspiration (she also uses the Project Life kits for some of her scrapbooking). I love her handwriting and am excited to be able to use it on my home projects! I used it to write the weeks on these pictures and only wrote on one image because I plan for both of the pictures for that measurement time to be near each other and also because I plan to use the stickers, date stamps and journaling cards that are included in each Project Life kit to write more detail about each stage/week of the pregnancy.
The images here are not artistic or even well exposed/composed at all. My photographer self cringes at many of them, wishing I'd taken the time to work a little harder at capturing this belly growth ... but my mommy self (and my memory-keeping soul) doesn't care that they're not the type of pictures I take today. Incorrectly exposed/composed pictures still hold so much emotion and memory for me and it's the memories I'm saving, not my photographic skill at the time.
Also, most of these pictures are taken while I was at work, by my friend Sue. It was a fun tradition for us to get these snapshots every day during break (I was lucky enough to do the marketing and PR for a private high school back then, before I became a mommy and a business owner). So the backgrounds? If it looks like we're in an old high school, it's because we are! Old carpet from the 70s, water coolers, ancient refrigerators and all. :)
I have a few other pictures from that 25th week. More from that doctor's appointment and I'll journal and write more using the pictures. Plus, that picture of my sister-in-law and me? We have a few others from that special night. That was the night she and James' brother Jeremiah told us that they were expecting THEIR first child! So in that belly of Amy's is Emma's cousin Sam.
Here's where the pictures start to get less and less flattering. Beware. Eek.
I totally remember taking this picture. I felt terrible -- so huge, so swollen, so puffy. But as the weeks passed, we had started to forget to take the pictures and it ended up being a thing where wherever we remembered to take them, we did it right then and there. Sometimes it was late at night, sometimes it was on the way out the door for an errand.
Wow. Scary. My mother-in-law took these pictures above. I'm so glad she did, though I definitely am not super fond of how DONE I look with being pregnant. So puffy! Only one week after this is when I went into labor.
So here we go. I'm going to try to keep track of my Project Life and memory-keeping progress. It'll be slow, so don't hold your breath. I still have two crazy kids and a business to manage, but I also feel that keeping track of our life and our memories is important. I've been given so many blessings in this life and doing things like this is a way for me to honor each of those blessings. And cherish the memories, as my kids seem to be growing way too quickly for me to be able to rely on my own mind to remember all of our special milestones.What's your favorite way to keep track of your family's memories? Do you scrapbook? Do you blog? Take photos and slide them into albums?
Comments
You look beautiful, what a great way to document.
Hope to see you blogging! Miss your updates. :-)