Project Life 2017: Week 40

This week we traveled to Missouri and back to surprise Brandon's brother for his 40th birthday.

Project Life 2017: Week 39

Hello! I've been absent for a while. My computer's hard drive needed to be replaced and that took a while. Once I got my computer back, I worked on our parent's photo calendars. Now I'm hoping to devote more time to Project Life and getting caught up. I had hoped to complete 2011 and 2017 this year, but I haven't even gotten through 2017 yet. I'll just keep plugging away.

As much as I don't like being behind, I enjoy working on a previous year (2011, for example) while working on the current year because it allows me to look back at precious photos. I just love pictures.

2018 starts tomorrow! Of course I'm a handful of weeks behind until I can start scrapbooking 2018, I've been thinking about our cover page, photos that we'll take tomorrow, and some questions to ask each of us to further document this time in our lives. I also need to search out a new font and week brushes to use for 2018. Other than that, not a whole lot is changing. Keeping it basic helps: photos, stories, brushes.

These three spreads are mainly from our fall party. It was our seventh party in our eight years living here.

Project Life 2017: Week 38

Because we love the barn and knew it could collapse soon, I took lots of pictures with it. And it's what we see when we look out our front windows. A few weeks ago, the barn was pulled down due to safety concerns. It is so sad to look at now. We've loved that barn for eight years. It has almost made me cry a few times since it's been down. It's crazy how a barn can make you feel that way. I'm happy I have pictures of it like the one below. I think sometimes we can take for granted the things that we are used to seeing everyday. Document it. You never know when it won't be the same.

Project Life 2017: Week 37

I didn't have as many pictures this week and had too many next week to make a two week spread, so instead I took the opportunity to resize some photos and include three large ones.

Project Life 2017: Week 36

Whoa...looking at this spread makes me see all of the journaling! There were stories to be told!

Project Life 2017: Week 35

I'm really loving the colors and photos in this spread - all the green and beauty of nature. ♥

Project Life 2017: Week 34

 I thought I had this two page spread almost wrapped up, but then I remembered some photos that my dad took. In order to include those and some photos with yours truly (since I'm normally behind the camera), it turned into two spreads. 

I love including big photos when I have the space to do so. And I love the photo that I chose to make big. Such fun memories. My mom is a good sport!

Project Life 2017: Week 33

My mom turned 70 this week! It's crazy to think about, but if you know her, you would never guess that was her age. I love her to pieces! ♥

Project Life 2017: Week 32

I love the simplicity of childhood. I miss being a kid. While my kids aren't always happy with what I don't allow them to spend too much time on (electronics and such), they have become thankful that they still play with toys and have great, functioning imaginations. They are seeing what happens to others when their lives are spent in front of screens. It's not pretty. I find it so sad. Childhood, real childhood, gets lost in all the hurry. There are only a little handful of years that one gets to be a child. The rest of our lives are spent being adults. I want to focus on living peaceable and living slowly. What's crazy is that it takes effort to do that. But I'm willing to always work toward that because the payoffs are huge. Let's live simply.

Project Life 2017: Week 30-31

While I love lots of pictures, I actually get a little happy when I only have enough for one page and that the week after is the same. Because then I can knock out two weeks in one spread. 

I recently saw a page of one photo (a 12x12 page that was just one big photo). I really liked that and it got me thinking of how I could incorporate that into my spreads here and there. It would have to be part of one week because I can't insert a single page just anywhere in my album since that would mess up the weeks that go together. Anyway, it's something to think about.

I'm trying to get a little more creative in photo angles - trying to think of a different way of approaching the situation I'm trying to capture. I have it in my head that I need to have the whole person in the photo or at least their head/face. But since I have plenty of photos (umm...just did a check the other day to see how many photos are on my computer... 42,000+!!) of my family, full body, full face, and many in-between, I'm sure having photos without their faces or the "whole story" will be just fine.

Project Life 2017: Week 29

This was a fun week of picking the seasons fruits. I'm so blessed and thankful for what I've had access to: strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and all the produce I get from my own garden. So many people across the world don't get to enjoy these things. I'm just so thankful. Aren't all of the colors are amazing?!

Project Life 2017: Week 28

What a pretty week this was. It's so cool when God's creation shows off. Beautiful pink hydrangeas, fresh picked green beans, a green growing garden, fresh picked cucumbers, red cherries. It's just beautiful! So beautiful in fact that our first time cherry picking got its own spread.

Project Life 2017: Week 27

I made some adjustments to some templates a couple months ago and part of that was changing the color to this very dark gray. For my last two spreads, I've left the gray as is and just put my writing on it instead of backing it with papers or something. Quick and easy for the win!