So I stalled there with Project Life waaaay back at Week 6.
It has sat half finished on my desk for months and months. I have still been diligently collecting my everyday photos though — both on my iPhone and with my Canon big camera as well as jotting down little bits and pieces as they happen — using the Day One app. So I figured that EVENTUALLY I would have a block of time to sit there and catch up. But I really didn’t anticipate it would be late September when I finally got myself back in the game.
The reason I fell behind
I fell behind with Project Life — not because of lack of time – although I am ridiculously busy with work and family life HOWEVER I don’t think that pulling a weekly spread together is all that time consuming really – I had been in a good rhythm with things.
I got behind because I was stalled at Week 6.
Week 6 marked the start of THREE mega huge weeks of stuff I wanted to record. It was the start of our eldest kid Brandt’s hospital saga and what we thought was just some muscular strain in his side from the gym but turned into a collapsed lung + fluid caused from pneumonia which was caused from inhaling potting mix when gardening without wearing a mask. A simple trip to the GP led to scans, tests, procedures, a long stay in hospital, a chest drain (twice), xrays and eventually an operation. It was a few weeks of awful-ness and while I really wanted to record it all in our Project Life album, I also knew I wouldn’t be recording the details anywhere else – so that meant I was wanting to cram in a LOT of information on those pages.
And because of the stress of what was happening I stopped writing notes at the time (which I really regret). I still took photos but I stopped recording the detail. So I knew it would be a bit of a big job going back through text messages, some facebook posts and family emails to piece all the detail together. And that’s taken me AGES.
However, i am pleased to say .. I have finished Week 6 (finally) and about 75% finished Week 7 and it feels good to be back into it again.
Ironically the week started out as a pretty average one.
I had photos of homemade ice cream, our middle son’s first day back at school after the summer holidays..
… a list of Capri’s Year 9 subjects and teachers..and even an everyday photo of how our puppy Dotty sleeps on her dog bed..
but by Friday of that week, the action around here kicked up a notch and took a dramatic turn..
Much of my Week 6 spread is text. I had a lot of information I wanted to document so I created several journaling cards to try and fit it all in.
I included a 6x8inch insert which had a collage of photos, front and back, of the first weekend in hospital (Brandt was all smiles mostly that weekend because we had no clue what was going to happen over the next few weeks!)
And sandwiched between the two collages of 6x8inch photos was an insert detailing the drama so far – printed onto cardstock.
Yes, there’s a lot of text..it was a long story!
and here’s the three pieces all together.. front and back photo collages and the mega sized journaling card..
I included smaller journaling cards for the extra “tidbits” like text messages I received from Brandt
and updates as they happened as the weekend unfolded.
And we did a few other things besides spending so much time at the hospital — like this quick trip to the shops so Capri could buy this onesie!
And a benefit for waiting soooo long to get these pages finished — I now have my Silhouette and that got a work out with all my little titles added in!
So here’s the finished double page spread including the 6x8inch insert. It feels soooo good to be moving on and catching up with my Project Life.
