week one and two, what to expect for pages and posts each month and EBF.

this is bound to be another long post. I try to break them up. I try to talk less (which is in fact impossible when your mother always thought you would become a writer and pushed you from day one... or... ummm.... 2nd grade on), but it fails me to say just a few short and sweet words when I am passionate about things. and this project, it brings out some kind of passion and creativity in me that has been bubbling up for years. I just did not know it, yet.

So before I go ahead and reveal week one and two, which felt like a let down after my December Daily, honestly, I wanted to share where the PL train is heading for me in 2013 and what my albums will be full of....


I am planning a weekly approach. I am a busy lady. I have huge to-do lists and lots and lots on my plate. There are never enough hours in any day for me to complete all I would aspire to. I want to take photos every day, make sure every one of them looks amazing and take incredible notes and tell stories that count and sometimes that will happen and sometimes it just will not. I am okay with that. really. and I will be careful to keep this fun.

I am planning one or two layouts a week with the Studio Calico Project Life Monthly Kit. I am going to layer a bit, explore and have fun trying new techniques and just play around with these spreads. I am so excited at least for a couple of months to be sharing one to two weekly spreads for this year created with the Citrus Twist Project Life Monthly Kit (and some catch up from last year with these kits, too). These kits are very paper heavy and are perfect for my layering crazy style. These kits will give me a chance to share more about that with you and how to incorporate layers, stitching and handmade mostly flat embellies into these spreads. AND I am almost busting at the seems to share that Pretty Little Studio is also going to play a HUGE part in my Project Life Albums this year!! I am going to be sharing a Project Life spread, step by step or insert every Sunday, so please stick around for that.... the papers and embellies are so perfect for Project Life no matter what your style is!

I will be sharing more of our schooling in our album. Last year I struggled with this and almost gave up, but I have new thoughts and a new approach this year and I think I have come up with a good compromise and feel much peace about where this is headed.

For today I am sharing what I created with the Studio Calico January Project Life Kit, with some added bits from my stash. It looks like I will be getting two spreads per month with these kits and will have some odds and ends to toss in my stash to use for other projects or spreads later on.

And here is

WEEK ONE

 the left side:

the right side:

and WEEK TWO 

the left side:

the left side:

and a little about the insert:

the first page is so very fun. a simple collage of his birthday cake eating  with his initials at the top of the simple insert.

and the opposite side is huge for me. huge.

you may want to first read a little of my breast feeding struggles in these posts:

the view

doors

packing it deep inside

but even though this breastfeeding journey brought me more struggles than I have ever known in my five other experiences, what this time around also brought me is more determination, more maturity and thankfully more trusting in the One who created me for this task and through only Him I did something I have never done before. I exclusively breast fed my first baby for 12 months. I push through it all and gave him a gift and even though it may not mean much to him, it was a huge accomplishment AND blessing for me. one that was very much PL worthy! I am so thankful and honored that I am his Mommy and that we have shared this special time (and continue to) for these months! It is a treasure. and it includes me putting aside my insecurities to share a HUGE picture of us. together, doing our thing.

so that wraps up my first two weeks. not as exciting as I wanted and not all the things I had been hoping we would do... no skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, fixing things. it just did not happen. and it might not this year. but really what did happen was special and important and full of what counts.

us. together. it's Project Life.