project life, 2011

My mom got me this for Christmas this year…which meant she gave me her credit card & told me to order it was soon as it hit Amazon :) …thanks mom!

I ordered the Amber edition. Originally I thought I wanted the Turquoise one…I love that color! And I didn’t think I wanted a “girly” album, but I *love* the prints in this one.

So after bringing in the box from my porch in the POURING rain, I took a picture, and got to unpacking!

And since I just blogged about “preparing”….I did a few things:

1. I put all the page protectors in the album. I used a calendar & then figured out where all of my month dividers should go too.I took all of the “week”  title cards, sorted them out, and matched one of the blank 3”x4” filler cards with them.
2. Then I shuffled (literally, like I was dealing a hand of poker) the filler cards & put one in each week of my album. All in the same spot. I may move them later, but this way it’s done.
3. Put all of the matching title cards in place. This last year (2010) I added thickers & letter stickers to them, and I’ll probably do that again. But again, I want everything in place so it’s done. I can embellish later when I have time (and my scrap table cleared off!).
4. Then I took each box of journaling cards (there are four) and shuffled them. Individually & then with each other until all 365+ cards were shuffled.
5. Last year I put each card in the album where it would go. However, that meant I had to take them out to journal. This year I was smart: I laid the cards out seven at a time (like a week) to make sure that my “random” shuffling didn’t result in duplicates for any given week. Then I placed the cards BACK into the boxes. Now I can bring the cards anywhere with me & stay on top of it! Woo-hoo! Something to do during dance class! I also labeled the boxes 1-4 so that I make sure to keep taking cards out of the same box. Not really important, but I get annoyed when I’ve got three half-boxes laying around!

And so, I feel prepared. I know how to take photos daily. I know how to take random “filler” photos whenever I get a chance so that I can use them on days that I really can’t take a photo.