PROJECT LIFE - falling behind, catching up, organizing....

*Grab a cup of coffee, this is a LONG read*

As you all know, I have been working at my children's school for the past academic year.  Their last day of school was last Thursday (28 June) and we now officially have TEN WEEKS of summer vacation!!!!  I love having my kids home :D

I had recently fallen 5 months being in my Project Life *urgh* and was feeling overwhelmed and totally LOST as to what to do.  I stumbled upon Michelle Wooderson's blog, Mish Mash.  She has an online store with lots of beautiful goodies for scrapbooking and Project life, and she has written a FABULOUS article on tips and tricks on when you fall behind on Project Life, which you can find by clicking HERE.  I read this article over and over, and finally got the guts to go and tackle my way behind PL.....I had been taking "notes" of what I had done for the month of December 2011 (my Project Life Album runs July-June), so December was a doddle, just finding the photos which corresponded to what we did in December.....The rest of the year to date.....not so easy....

I started by going through my photos by date, and printing off the photos and taking notes corresponding to the date, including jotting down any ephemera I had for that day.  I had to surrender to changing my approach from "A Photo A Day" to "Photo's from the Month of...."  It was at this point that the knot in my stomach started to ease.

I used Michelle's Sticky Note solution and planned my pages by writing the date on a small sticky note along with a description of the photo for that pocket.  I added the date and "JOURN" on another sticky note and placed that where I wanted to add the journalling for that photo/day.  Using the sticky notes made it super easy for me to "rearrange" the layout if I needed to add anything in.

My next step was to print off the photos in the sizes I had made available for them, insert them into their predetermined slots (thanks sticky notes :D).

The next step was simply to do the journaling and a little embellishing for the photos.  I worked on this for about 3 evenings and got it all up to date!!!  I was ELATED......

But alas......*sigh*

I then ran into end of school year busyness at school and was either working late or coming home TOTALLY exhausted and really not in the mood to even walk into my craft room, let alone actually do anything creative.

I did keep up with one thing though, thank goodness....I found this super cute June-July planner from Paperchase...(oh happy days!!).  I have faithfully been updating it regularly with the goings on of day to day life, as well as religiously printing out the pictures from the day.  This was another pointer I got from reading Michelle's blog.  (BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE PLEASE FOR MICHELLE!!!!)

It is A5 size, with uber-cute colorful owls on the cover - I KNOW RIGHT!!! I love owls :D  The best is inside....

The left hand page has a week to view on it...It is just the right size to take down some notes on the day.  I haven't needed more space as yet, but if I do, I will just add in a sticky note with the additional information on it....

The right side is grid note paper with seven sections, corresponding the the day on the opposite page.  Here is where I write down the photo notes for the day.  Once I have printed the photo off for the day, I highlight it off (NERDY!!)

I print off my pictures using a Canon Selphy printer.  I have recently managed to get it to print directly from my laptop....It has opened up my printing size options, so future pages will have more interesting photo shapes and sizes.  I write the date of the photo on the tear tab of the photograph, so that I don't need to go looking through the notes again to see which day it belongs to.  All the photos from the week, stay in the planner in this week until I am able to add them to my album.

I have ordered my new page protectors from Becky Higgins through Amazon, but I am yet to get a new album to put them into, so I currently have the pages held together with clips.  I am planning a trip to Creative Hands soon to get a few more crafting supplies :D

I started with the first week of June last night, and have been HUGELY inspired by Leena Loh's blog, findingnana.  I stumbled upon her blog while trawling Pinterest for Project Life layout ideas.  She started PL in January and documents her journey through it beautifully.  You can go to all her PL posts by clicking HERE. Leena also has some goodies for sale on her Etsy shop.  I have ordered some of the buttons from her and I am sure you will see them pop up on some of my layouts :D.

I have sorted out bits and pieces that I will be using for PL and put them in a wooden container.  All of these bits are used in my SMASH book, which is on the back burner for now, but I will post on the blog about it soon :D

What would I do without sticky notes??????

Newly completed left page for the start of June....

Right page for June....

Lastly, I have recently installed a couple of FAN-DABI-DOZI Apps on my iPhone, especially for using with Project Life....Here is my list of recommends of iPhone/Ipad Apps which are a must have....

Instagram (no brainer :D) - iPhone and iPad

Photo Collage (simple but fun to make collages *duh*) - iPhone and iPad

Befunky (fun photo effects and frames) - iPhone and iPad

I have recently installed Camera Awesome on my phone, I am still learning its workings.  I will keep you posted as to what I think :D

I am sure you are all read out, but thanks for sticking with it....

I always love to hear from you, so leave a comment :D

xx