Heather Johnson Photography

I was on a mission to get this done tonight!

This week’s main theme was meeting up with the family in Anaheim. I tried to make the layouts not all about Disney as I am working on inserts now for the stories of the entire trip. This week I used yet another kit from the daily digi–Daydreamer. I really loved the colors, and the theme seemed to go well with all that went on last week.

The left side:

Here we have the story of Holly’s tonsils and a photo of Marie after she taste-tested her first veggies. I remembered to take a photo while trying on a dozen pair of sneakers before the trip–what an experience it is to find shoes that fit me!! Two of my favorite photos from our weekend are on this page as well….love the backlit one of the girls, as well as the b/w image of my brother with his kids and Holly as we waited for my mom and aunt to arrive. An hour into the trip and they were all already all smiles!

Right Side:

This might be my favorite page of the whole year so far. I LOVE that I was able to get Holly doing her twirling…she absolutely LOVES dresses that spin way, way out. We can’t find any in stores that have enough volume–but thankfully she has a grandmother who is one heck of a seamstress! Holly’s closet is filled with custom made twirly dresses!

Holly had the cutest quote about palm trees I recorded on the card on the upper right, and the Week in Review card summed up our week as usual. The journaling on the card reads:

Sunday Holly returned home from The Farm. It’s always so hard for her to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. ~ Monday Holly had a really sore throat so we kept her home from school and went to the doctor. She tested negative for strep, but we were directed to go to an ENT because of her tonsils. ~  Tuesday we learned that Holly will probably need surgery on her tonsils soon. Steph came over and watched the girls while Mom tried to get some last minute shopping done. ~ Wednesday Mom found the cutest shoes EVER. So ready for our trip! ~ Thursday we arrived in California! While we were waiting to check-in The Gray’s arrived, and Holly was attached to Madison from that moment on. ~ Friday was our first day at Disney. Early favorite rides were The Haunted Mansion and The Thunder Mountain Railroad. Jenny and I were brilliant at working the fastpass system! We all stayed out way too late. ~ Saturday the group was spilt into two most of the day. Vacation is tiring!

Had fun putting together this week’s layouts with another kit from the digi files–did I mention how much I love the daily digi? I have so many new kits at this point I literally don’t know which one to use each week, let alone what I truly have on hand. (This is, in my opinion, the only disadvantage to digital scrapbooking–I can’t see it all without opening up one too many windows in Photoshop!)

This past week was very, very short on pictures. At one point I wasn’t even sure I was going to have enough, but then I remembered I had taken some photos with my iphone. Love, love, love my iphone. (It’s quickly becoming into the necessity of life category for me…I used to think it a like to have versus a have to have, but now I am not so sure. I would probably be willing to eat bologna and cereal for as long as I needed to in order to keep my iphone!)

Anyhow, I was suffering from a lack of energy and a lack of willingness to even want to deal with writing anything down. I don’t know if I was just burnt out, or if the novelty is wearing off–but it has been really hard as of late to come up with the ambition to work on my PL album lately. Is anyone else going through this?

Left Side:

A few things about this page…don’t you just love the date circle? I stumbled upon this collection at the Sweet Shoppe and just about went nuts. What a great resource to have for labeling! What you may not even realize (I sure didn’t until I opened them) is that you get a layered psd file for each cute tag/circle/etc. I can customize the heck out of that circle with colors and such–LOVE LOVE LOVE! I also am loving digital washi tape. And for the first time I threw on some flowers, which back in the day were my absolute favorite thing about paper scrapping. The Week in Review card is back too. Here is the journaling for week 18:

Sunday was a day at The Farm for the girls. We celebrated Jenna’s wedding shower and enjoyed seeing lots of the extended family. ~ Monday Mom was so burnt out from WITL the week before that no picture was taken, or memory recorded! ~ Tuesday Holly was home from school so we all braved the chillier weather and went to the park. Marie rode the swings! ~ Wednesday was pretty uneventful. Mom spent a large part of the day trying to catch up with her Digital Design class. ~ Thursday a bad storm came through town, making it dark as night in the middle of the morning. Holly had a haunted house in her room with battery-operated candles! ~ Friday was a girl’s night out for mom. A few friends, a few drinks, and a little bowling. Very fun and something to do more of! ~ Saturday Holly was off to the farm to get more dresses and hang with Grammie and Grandpie. Mom, Dad, and Marie enjoyed a quiet house and a BBQ with our neighbors. It was a super fun time!

Right Side:

I was a little tag crazy on this page I can see now! My favorite thing about this page is the princess picture–the girls in our neighborhood are just too cute with their imaginary play. I know that this will be wonderful to look at and remember years down the road.

I am still working on putting together my Week in The Life album. And getting ready for Disneyland in three days. And taking care of a daughter who may have strep throat. (First test negative, but her tonsils are huge so we see an ENT tomorrow.)

Calgon? Where are you …….

———————————————————————-

Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. To learn more about Project Life check out Becky’s Website. The pieces used in my album are available through Jessica Sprague here. If you live outside the US check Becky’s site for more information on sources. View all my posts about Project Life here.

This is the week that almost wasn’t!

A Week in The Life was so intensive that it truly burned me out of photos, words, you name it. I wasn’t going to do a layout for week seventeen, but I truthfully should be more worried about week 18. I am not sure if I have four photos of this week–week 18–even taken and tomorrow is the end of “my week!”)

Anyhow, I realized that my since my week runs Sunday-Saturday for project life that skipping a week meant skipping over two very fun things that happened in Week 17–a visit to the new soda fountain down the street AND a date night for Justin and I. Date nights are so few and far between that I thought I better record the event down!!!!

Left Side:

I kept it pretty simple. Filled up the 4×6 slots with photos, and really had minimal journaling. I still have to work on The Week in The Life (WITL) album, better save my “brain dump” of memories for that project!

Right Side:

To save time I went with big 6×6 squares. These were some of my favorite photos of the week–and probably will end up in my WITL album too. I have decided to be okay with that. Funny note–the layout in the upper left hand corner is actually a template. I loved the colors used, so I didn’t even clip any patterned paper to it!! (Talk about a time saver.) Received the template from the digi files at the dailydigi.com–I finally became a member and am BLOWN AWAY by all the product you get for $7.50 a month. Totally worth it if you have been on the fence about joining. I have been spending…well let’s just say I have NOT been spending $7.50 a month on supplies!

Here is the journaling for my WITL recap:

This past week I played along online with an Ali Edwards project called A Week in The Life. At first I wasn’t going to do it; I truthfully had tried to follow along on at least three other occasions without much success. What changed my mind? A blog post I read online that talked about motherhood. I knew after reading that post how important it would be to record every little detail of the week, if for no other reason than to give my girls the confidence and support they may need one day as mothers themselves. I wanted them to know how hard, wonderful, exhausting, and energizing it is to be a mom of two little ones. I wanted them to know that when they cry from frustration or feel so proud their heart doesn’t even feel big enough to hold the feeling in, that I understand. I wanted them to know how much they were/are loved. I can honestly say that although taking pictures and recording moments for seven straight days was really a big project to undertake, I absolutely cannot wait to do it again. 

And that’s a wrap. I am so happy I finished this up, I was a bit anxious all week it wasn’t done. I like my Tuesday deadline–and more importantly the Disney trip is sure to create more hiccups so I didn’t need to get any more behind than I already am. Part of me is curious if all of the WITL stuff gets in an album………

Who knew memory keeping was so much work!?