I actually found time to make a few cards....never mind that the kit has been sitting on my desk in pieces for literally months.
And for your scrolling pleasure, some weeks of Project Life pages......
I still love that I can adapt the photo templates to my needs and the amount of pictures I have any particular week.
So yep, just scroll along and re-live those memories with me....
Not forgetting this year.
There's also not as much going on health-wise to occupy my mind and make it difficult for me to stay caught up.
Also, the tablet is amazing for my old eyes.
I only have six more weeks to document from last year.
Sorry/not sorry for the family history explosion this week.
I love the ease of this process.
Another installment of keeping myself accountable for finishing up 2022's family yearbook.
For your scrolling pleasure...
Family history documented.
Stories revisited.
While many of my pages use the default template seen here,
You can scroll back up and see the variety of options for pictures of different sizes and quantities.
I'm definitely getting closer to calling this particular family history project....done.
And holy cow, I did a lot of canning last fall.
I've been making great inroads into my attempted Project Life catch up.
Part of the reason it's been slow and difficult is that I've got old eyes.
I wasn't able to read the journaling on the app on my phone.
Even when I wore my cheaters, it wasn't easy to see.
I solved the problem by getting a tablet so everything could be bigger...
...which means I've been cranking through the weeks.
It's been fun to go through the stories again,
and since I've gotten a lot of pages done recently, I'll be posting them for perusing this week.
Documenting history today.
This might not be considered history, but it is. This is Sam's quilt.
He's part of my family history,
and this is one of the ways I personally document it.
This little bee button on the back is a little love note from Gramma Honey. (As an aside to my kids....since I found these buttons only a couple of years ago, I have enough for all the quilts I've made that don't have them, if you want them.)
This is also family history. Older blog posts that represent that time period in my family.
It's all part of family history, and since I'm not going to print off 4,000+ blog posts, I'm cherry picking. Past,
and present.
This is also history.
Tardy history, but history nonetheless.
I kept my hands very busy last week and this week.
Here's proof that I did actually finish off Sam's quilt top. I need to get some batting and then it can go to the quilter.
I also finished off a couple of card kits that have been occupying space on the craft table. I used this kit for some Christmas thank you notes. This particular design was a lift of one by Kristina Werner.
When I got tired of that, I tried a new design or two. I've found that the quickest way to get through these older card kits is to pick a couple of designs and make multiples of them until I run out of papers.
It felt good to play with paper again.
I've been documenting my frantic catching up with last year's Project Life pages.
In order for that NOT to happen again this year,
I've also started working on January 2023 pages.
You can see there's a big contrast between the style I picked for 2022,
and the one I picked for this year.
I was just feeling the need for something a little more minimal.
So filed under "staying accountable" for last year's stories, here are the completed catch up pages for this week.
I'll just let you scroll through, wandering down memory lane a bit.
Just a reminder that there are many and varied templates in the app that enable me to fit what pictures I have into workable spaces.
In actuality, not a whole lot is changing in my documenting/planning regimen other than trying to stay more consistently current with my Project Life pages. I'm still using the planner from She's in Her Apron for several reasons. First off, it's mostly plain inside, so I can decorate it any way I want. The last several months, this is absolutely the only opportunity I've had to be creative in any way.
There's a monthly calendar, which doesn't surprise anybody.
There's also a second calendar for tracking another schedule. Since I don't have kids going in 20 different directions well, I DO, but they don't live with me, I use it for tracking blog posts.
This right here is a big reason I chose this planner and that's because of the next section. It's an inventory sheet for the pantry, freezer, fridge, and freezer meals. The purpose here is keeping track of inventory, but across the page....
....is a spot for using that inventory to plan some meals during that particular month.
There are pages that don't work for me in my particular situation, so I adapt them. This one is for thoughts I want to remember from church meetings.
There are blank pages I can use however I want. I always have a page for things I love about the month and I also include a little space for things that didn't go so well. Like trying to get rid of my lungs up my throat coughing for the second time in 6 weeks. Not. Good. And believe me, it's made the the list.
Lots more blank spaces for whatever you might want to keep track of.
And more note pages at the back for things you want to remember over the course of the quarter. That's the only disadvantage I find with this planner right now, and it's that the planner in this format is only available in 4 month increments. There is a yearly planner, but it's not set up this way. Its daily pages also aren't set up the way that works best for me. Anyway, I keep a space for garden information, and this is a place where I wish I could have a yearly format, because the garden travels across 3 planners in this system. That said, in my experiences with many planner systems, there is no perfect one.
I also keep track of canning. Canning went across 2 planners.
Yes, I still keep a daily journal. It's at 840 days straight and counting.
I keep plugging away at pages that go in the Pieces of My Heart album. If anyone wanted to know me without meeting me in real life, this would be the album(s) to look through. This particular page is taken straight from last year's Thanksgiving Day post, coupled with a picture from that afternoon.
Since my last post, I've worked my way through a couple more weeks of Project Life pages.
If people wanted to keep up with the last several years of my family's history,
then these would be the yearbooks to look through.
I'm really going to stay better caught up this year.
There's no doubt that Christmas is a busy time of year. What I've found this particular year, is that I've been Christmas busy for months. Part of that is what I have to do for my mother, who doesn't drive now, and part of that is just the way my life is evolving right now.
I stitched the tops for these little Christmas pillows last year and finally got them stuffed and finished. I gave a couple to friends and then one to Elise and my bonus daughters (DILs).
I copied a blog post to make a Project Life editorial page that will go in the "Pieces of My Heart" album under the Holiday tab.
And now, here's where the behind part sets in. I'm behind, as in REALLY behind on this year's Project Life year book pages.
Don't ask me how this happened because this is the easiest way ever to do a yearly family history,
but it did.
Fortunately, it's also the quickest way to catch up on family history that I've come across.
So in the interest of accountability,
there will be a lot of "year in review" coming up.
In all honesty, it's been a while since I've been creative in any way. Canning, preserving, and garden produce have taken a lot of time. So has some travel catch up, and in all honesty, my mother's needs.
I did finally finish off a card kit that's been sitting on my table for a while. In the interest of full disclosure, these cards were finished off sometime in September before the heavy canning started. I told you it's been a while for the creativity.
I'm still playing catch up with Project Life pages.
I'm actually done up through Week 27, but haven't quite got them ready and sized for posting.
As an aside, I recently received my 2021 year book.
As always, I'm glad I've kept this project up. It's just so great to see all these memories in a concrete form.
Honestly, it's been a little hard to keep my hands busy for various reasons, mostly because I had a lot of coming and going, and had the surgeries for my melanoma. There will be more on that when my eye is working a little better, and when I can give a more comprehensive story.
Pre-surgery, I did finish up another crazy quilt square. Love the fun stitches I'm able to learn/do on these blocks.
Canning season is winding down. My sister brought me some peppers from her garden and I used them up in a couple of ways.
I did a batch of chili sauce. It's my husband's grandmother's recipe and one of the things I do for love. I finished bottling the as many of the tree peaches we needed as well.
Some spaghetti sauce also happened. Ironically, I don't often use this as sauce for spaghetti. Usually, I add it to some kind of soup, or a pasta sauce I'm making...but not usually spaghetti.
I'm pretty much staying current with Project Life pages.
Pretty sure you've see all these stories.
Again, ad nauseam, I'm going to say this is absolutely the easiest way I've found to actually keep up with my family history.
Adaptable templates to fit the number and spatial orientation of my pictures for the week.
