project life & the great debate

wow.  who knew deciding on a project life album size for THIS year would be so challenging?  thank goodness i don't have worldly decisions to make over here... 

there's never been a doubt about continuing project life this year, but how i wanted to approach the project has been swimming in my head for a few months.

i definitely think i'm a little burnt out on the 12x12 "design a" style.  yes, it is very consistent and clean looking, but the "fun" part of it was starting to wear on me.  i added a few inserts in last year and i love those.  i actually love my whole completed albums, too.  it's definitely one of those projects that's a lot of work, but so worth it in the end.

so my thought was to go smaller.  unfortunately there aren't too many options when it comes to sizes of project life other than 12x12 and 6x8.  i wanted it to still be "easy", as in slip in photos and not have to do too much altering of page protectors.  if it's not easy, it's going to go to the bottom of my to-do list and that's just going to drive me crazy.

i finally convinced myself to do the handbook size.  i have a zillion page protectors and i've made a few handbook albums so it would be a breeze, right? wrong.  i tried to do my first week in a handbook and it just didn't feel right.

so i debated going to the 12x12 and mixing in various page protectors (which i also have a zillion of).  but the size still didn't sit well with me.  and i'm pretty sure i would end up reverting back to my "design a" after a few weeks of trying to change up page protectors.

then i found a random 8.5x11 album i had on my shelf.  (key very dramatic music here) it's really my only other option at this point so i'm sticking with it.  (key celebratory music here) . i'm super interested to see marcy's album for 2014.  maybe she should create and sell albums for all of us unsure, 12x12 is too big, people!!

so after all that....here is my 2014 project life plan!!

*8.5x11 we r memory keepers album

*document monthly

*use more enlarged photos

*use less "fluff" on my photos

*add more journaling digitally

*use various sizes of page protectors 

(yes, i will be cutting down my 12x12 and i'll share more on that process later)

*use my big camera more

*document "12 on the twelfth" each month....see below

since i'm going monthly, one of the projects i would like to include is a glimpse of one day each month.  on the 12th of each month, i plan to grab my DSLR and document 12 various moments of our day.  think "day in the life" without having a camera attached to your eye all day.  super laid back. i might grab my camera on the hour every hour, or some days i just might snap away and then pick my 12 best photos at the end of day.  with this i want to:

*get a good glimpse of our everyday

*use my canon instead of my iPhone

i plan on using liz tamanaha digital templates to document our day.  her templates are beautiful and super easy to use. i may also spice it up every once in a while and create my own sectioned page protector using my handy sewing machine!!  

press plate no. 38

press plate no. 39

i'll have a link up on my blog on the 13th of each month, so if you want to play along pleeeeeease with a sweet little cherry on top, link up!!  i think it's the perfect way to capture the everyday, but not be too overwhelming!!  

so what do you think?  will you join me tomorrow??  hope so!!

happy saturday!