Project Life 2012 | Week Forty-Four

I'm playing catch-up (again) on Project Life.  Funny thing is, sometimes life can get in the way of actually documenting each week.  But I am trying really hard to keep this going through the end of this year and to complete each week, even those past weeks that still need photos and words.  I absolutely love the results of the project.

Week forty-four was the week Hurrican Sandy hit our region.  I decided to dedicate an entire page to the storm, incorporating my photos of the Upper East Side and some from Mike's co-worker of half of Manhattan without power.

On the following two pages, I documented the strange week that followed, with no subway service, the cancellation of the NYC Marathon, our Halloween, and an anniversary party at our gym.

Project Life 2012 | Week Thirty-Nine

Another busy week in the books - phew! Of particular note, our refrigerator died on Friday morning. Sigh. One of those moments when you just wish you didn't have to be an adult. But there were also delicious meals, pretty necklaces (to chose for my wedding day!), and a lovely card from my Mom. I still need to add a few items to complete the week: a photo of Mike and Tom in their Whalers hats at a golf tournament, a few photos from the CrossFit Metropolis Team Throwdown, and a sticker to denote the week and dates. I also included some pretty photos and signage from the Travel & Leisure Global Bazaar that I attended on Saturday afternoon.

Project Life 2012 | Week Thirty-Eight

It's been awhile since I have successfully put together a full week of photos and paper and words; seven weeks to be exact. Part of the gap was due to some amazing vacations, both of which I am still very slowly working my way through all of our photos. But mostly, the gap can be blamed on work and life being insanely busy.

Week 38 was no exception. If we are being honest, it was actually one of the most brutal work weeks of the year, which is why there are minimal photos. It is quite rare for my week to consist of mostly journaling.

Besides recording some of the joys and frustrations of the week, I included this comic Mike sent me that made me laugh on a tough day, and made me want a furry friend even more. I love the new (to me) Ali Edwards journaling cards I purchased during the quarterly sale at Designer Digitals. I also included two cards we received in the mail, one from my best girlfriend who now lives in Arizona.

Project Life 2012 | Week Thirty-One

Week thirty-one - Monday, July 30th through Sunday, August 5th - was a week where I found more inspiration in words than in photos. The month of July came to a close and, happily, I was able to check-off everything I was supposed to complete in the first month of our engagement. I visited Paper Source for the first time ever and just loved the saying on their colorful bag, "Do something creative every day." Good words to remember - it is amazing how much of a difference this makes in my world.

My need to unplug - from Twitter, Facebook, wedding blogs, Manhattan - became more readily apparent as the days wore on, as one might expect as a long awaited vacation approaches. I also included two free printables that I really loved - one from Eighteen 25 and one from Ali Edwards (I re-colored this one to hot pink!).

Project Life 2012 | Week Thirty

Last week was fairly quiet until the weekend, when we drove to Wildwood, New Jersey for the annual beach ultimate frisbee tournament. Madness is about the only word to describe those 36 hours.

We have been having some pretty intense summer storms and I captured a shot of the clouds rolling in through our bedroom window. I included two of the many paper samples I have picked-up to consider for our wedding invitations. It's tough to make a decision with so many beautiful options! A few other things of note: Mike surprised me with hot pink wrist wraps (I've been hunting for them for months!), the Olympics began, and I included words from this poster that I really love.

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Nine

Here is our week twenty-nine: Monday, July 16th through Sunday, July 22nd. We ended up referring to this as the "Week of Worth It" - recovering from a wedding the weekend before and seeing the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Otherwise it was a fairly quiet week, with margaritas and wedding planning during the weekend and a bit of lettering practice for our invitations.

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Eight

Here is our week twenty-eight: Monday, July 9th through Sunday, July 16th. This week’s layout is mostly composed of photos from the wedding of our friends Jon and Pam. I designed the labels (above) for two beers Mike made especially for the wedding. Both were really delicious, but the saison was out of this world! This was such a fun weekend to share with our friends!

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Seven

I am running a bit behind in documenting my weeks for Project Life, as our weekends, usually my dedicated time to piece everything together, have recently been filled with weddings, catching-up with friends, and planning our own wedding. That’s okay though – these are the weekends we will remember for years to come.  More to come soon.

Here is a look at our week number twenty-seven: Monday, July 2nd through Sunday, July 8th. It was a quiet week – one of those weeks without much on the calendar, a week that encouraged me to note the smaller, special things in life: lunch dates, Mike’s Batman keychain, our 4th of July dinner, engagement gifts and notes from our friends, Mike assisting me with photos, a trip to Coney Island.

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Six

Week number twenty-six – halfway through 2012. We got engaged! If I didn’t already love this project for so many reasons, this week definitely would have reminded me of just how special it is to put together a week work of memories. Some weeks are slow and harder to put together than others; then there are weeks like this where two pages is just not nearly enough to document just one day!

I decided to make the whole week about our engagement and trip to Blue Hill at Stone Barns. To incorporate the story of how Mike asked me to marry him, I added a 6x12 page protector with a memory circle from Ali Edwards. Along the left side, I added some sweet lyrics from a song; on the right, I added a strip from a paper by Katie Pertiet. I just used a pretty piece of scrapbooking paper for the backing. Do you like how I snuck a photo of my ring in there? Smitten!

I added lots of photo pages in order to keep all of the photos from the weekend together. The small strips of paper on the bottom of those pages is literature from the farm. I kept the walkabout map from the farm and added a heart where Mike popped the question. I also added the food and season journal from our dinner in one of the pockets. I plan on adding the receipt from our dinner in a small envelope. We’ve decided that while the cost still gives us heart palpitations (though worth every penny!), maybe one day our grandkids will look at it one day and think it was an inexpensive meal!

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Five

I am skipping over Week 24, as I still have tons of photos to sort through from my time in Aspen, CO for the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. So instead let's jump to Week 25: Monday, June 18th through Sunday, June 24th. The week started off on a rough patch, as exhaustion kicked in for both Mike and me after a grueling past few months. Such things can be difficult to properly capture in a project like this - do you ignore it, skimming over something that really had an impact on the week, or bluntly record that you had a disagreement? I found myself naturally drawn to the middle, including a quote from a song that perfectly summed up the situation and including lyrics to my favorite song that played randomly, exactly when I needed it, on my commute to work.

I am loving so many parts of this project, especially the organization of photos and thoughts that would normally be lost over time, and I have found myself looking at things from a much more creative perspective, trying to really absorb and appreciate the small things around me each day. For instance: the photo behind my Week #25 circle is from a Serena & Lily catalog, which I normally would have flipped through and tossed, but colors and patterns really caught my eye, so I decided to incorporate it into the colorfulness of the week.

Most of my weeks tend to be very photo heavy, but I incorporated a few more journaling elements this week. I loved the treatment Ali Edwards used on a recent journaling card, so I replicated it to write a few words about our really fun date night.

I also try to incorporate things from Mike’s perspective as often as possible. This is his photo of the lake from a bachelor weekend spent at a lodge. I just added the graphic of a compass and some words about the location.

This photo is also from the date night we enjoyed – I bet you can’t tell it is almost 100 degrees! I purchased Ali Edwards' Memory Circles to use as an overlay on the photo.

Project Life 2012 | Week Twenty-Three

I'm playing a bit of catch-up here as I have been out of town and away from this project for the last week. Week twenty-three (Monday, June 4th through Sunday, June 10th) was filled with numbers, work, and horses. And in between all of that - Mike celebrated his 28th birthday!

In addition to my typical two page layout for the week, I added a 6x12 page protector - one side holds the picture of Mike's birthday cake and my thoughts about it, the other side holds a sweet note from my mom. I also added a 12x12 envelope page to hold all of Mike's birthday cards.

I included a few random things that made me smile during a tough week: dinosaur cartoons, a funny text message from Mike, confetti from our Classic team meeting.

The last page holds some photos, my pass, and some (losing) betting tickets from the Belmont Stakes. I also included some photos and coasters from a Sunday enjoyed with Mike and Tom.