Why I Love Project Life

Hey everyone!

Happy Tuesday to you! Quick post today on a little experience I had this weekend that helped remind me why I love Project Life. 

I was sorting through pictures we have stashed around the house, organizing them by year, and getting ready to pack them up so I can easily put them into Project Life sleeves at some point. And I came across this one from last year:

Our house. I took it during the Week in the Life Project I did last spring. 

I almost started crying when I found this picture. I really didn't remember taking it. It's not like I can't still see my house every day when we pull up in front of it to get our mail. But I know that won't always be the case. 

I realized how grateful I am to have thought to do this. It's the only picture of the front of our house that I have. And once we move, I'm going to miss this house terribly. It's our first home together, and probably my dream house. 

Photos like these are why I love Project Life. It was so simple for me to stick my phone out of the car window and snap a picture. I think a thousand stories when I see this picture, and have some of the best memories of my life. 

Project Life encourages me to take pictures when I normally wouldn't. It encourages me to see the little things in life. It encourages me to capture memories with photos, even if I think I'll remember them down the road. Project Life helps me tell our story. 

Are you ask hooked on Project Life as I am? Even if you're not, what's the picture in your photo album or scrapbook that makes you flood with emotion and memories? Share them in the comments if you'd like! 

Have a great day everyone! 

Wednesday {Week in the Life 2012}

Getting closer to being done! I'm going to be honest, I'm losing steam with this project. I think just because this week is so busy, I'm not being mindful of taking pictures. And frankly, sometimes it's just not appropriate to take out my phone during the middle of a meeting to take a photo. :) But, that's okay, at the end of the week it won't really matter how many pictures I took each day.

On another note entirely, I got some really fun things for Gather yesterday {one of which you'll see in a photo below}, and I have plans to head to Des Moines this weekend for Junk Jubilee to find more cute stuff. I'm seriously over the moon at having some concrete plans for the opening of Gather, and I can't turn my mind off to all the ideas I have for the store. I didn't get more than a couple hours sleep last night because I couldn't relax. I'm exhausted, but I love it!

Okay, on to the photos from yesterday. {I'm @gatherboutique on Instagram, and these photos are all processed with the Nashville filter.} 


Thanks for looking everyone!

Tuesday {Week in the Life 2012}

Hi all!

It's my Tuesday pictures post. I took less pictures than on Monday, probably because I wasn't in my office much between teaching a class in the morning and then painting all afternoon for our renovation. One note I forgot to mention in yesterday's WITL post - I asked my husband to take some pictures for the project as well, so he's got a few to add to the project when it's finished. I don't have all of them so I probably won't share them in my blog, but you'll see them as the project is finished. He doesn't use Instagram, so I'll be importing them to mine and processing them with the same filters as the ones I've taken.

You can follow me on Instagram @gatherboutique if you want to keep up with my photos throughout the day. Thank goodness for this app, it's made the WITL project so much easier! Thanks for visiting!!

Monday {Week in the Life 2012}

Hi all,

Below are my Instagram photos from Monday. All of them are processed with the Nashville filter. I like the idea of using one filter throughout the day {and may continue to use it throughout the project, we'll see}. As a reminder, I'm posting these images on my Facebook page, and you can follow me on Instagram @gatherboutique. See you tomorrow!

Here We Go! {Week in the Life 2012}

Good Monday morning, everyone!

Today marks the beginning of the Week in the Life project, and I'm excited to be participating for the 3rd year in a row. I wrote last week how I hoped nothing major would happen during this project to derail it, and then yesterday, I pulled a muscle in my back and was stuck on the couch all day. I figured it'd jinxed it, but today, I'm feeling almost 100% again. Thank goodness!!

So, here's what Week in the Life means for me: a whole week of photos of our everyday life. I plan to take all the photos with Instagram (I'm @gatherboutique if you want to follow), so you can keep up with me that way {we're using #weekinthelife for the project}. I'll try to post pictures from the day before on my blog. I also post Instagram pics to my Facebook if you're a friend of mine. There's also a Week in the Life free community over at Big Picture Classes that I'll be joining this morning {I joined last year, and it kept me very motivated!}

As of right now, I plan to incorporate the photos into my Project Life album to keep things easy. I honestly don't even know if I'll journal or not through the process. I kind of like the idea of the photos speaking for themselves, but we'll see. Becky Higgins just announced that plastics will be available in July with 4x4 openings for Instragram pics, but I think I'll come up with some sort of solution on my own with the plastics I already have.

So, that's my project for the next week. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you're doing this project as well...having the support of others is always a great motivator! I'll be back tomorrow with photos of today!

Whirlwind

 Happy Tuesday everyone!

My life right now is spinning in circles and while it's really fun, I'd like to slow down for just a minute. I don't see that happening, but it's nice to wish. The good news is that I'm thrilled with all the things that are making life so crazy right now!

• I have a love/hate relationship with my job. It's called work after all. I love what I do, I love where I work, and I love the people I work with. Sometimes, it just exhausts me though, both physically and mentally. Which I hate. As I mentioned in my last post, we are opening a new wing {yesterday, as a matter of fact}, and have spent the last 6 weeks working hard to get it up and running. We had our first new client move in yesterday, and I'm really proud of all the work we got accomplished as a team. There's a lot more to be done throughout this week, but I'm glad the hardest parts are behind us. Now, it's moving on to the details, and catching up on all the other things that have fallen behind...like filing...

• I finally feel like I'm making progress on Gather. The building itself is coming along nicely and should be finished soon for the most part. I've been busy gathering furniture and display pieces that I can't wait to show you. I have a lot of display ideas floating around in my head, and I should even be able to tell you a date for the grand opening soon! If that's not progress, I don't know what is! I visited with Becky for a bit last week and we talked a little about Gather. She suggested using Instagram to show customers finds for the store or things that are for sale in real-time. I think that's a fantastic, fun suggestion, and definitely fits into my hectic lifestyle. Thanks for your great advice Becky, and if anyone wants to follow me on Instagram, I'm @gatherboutique.
• We're busily packing up our house. I've decided to take inventory of a lot of the products I keep on hand {thanks to couponing} so it's going a little slower than I like, but at least I feel really organized about the whole process. In my head, I'd like to get out of the house by mid-May, and get the house ready to be listed for sale on June 1. With the store opening, I'm not sure how realistic that is, but we're going to try. If you're interested in a really great inventory app, check out Prep & Pantry. It allows you to scan bar codes, enter expiration dates, tell you if coupons are available, and much more. It also allows you to list things that don't have bar codes, like books or DVDs in your collection. I have the full version that I just got this weekend, so I'm still learning about it, but so far, I love it!
• The new Sookie Stackhouse book comes out on May 1 {oh em gee!} and every time a new book comes out, I read all the previous books over again, in order, in preparation. It's getting to be more and more of a task, but I love it. Problem is, I'm super busy and once I start reading a good book, I'm not really motivated to do much else. Maybe I could reward myself with a book after I finish a project?
• Around spring, I'm always inspired to read more. It probably has to do with my Sookie tradition, but I love it. I got Tori Spelling's new book, celebraTORI, and a book on marketing and small business. I just finished two Nicholas Sparks books (Dear John and The Lucky One) in about a day...I didn't really sleep that night. It was awesome and reminded me of being back in high school and college when I stayed up all night reading for fun. Yes, I'm a dork. I'm fine with it!

• Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project is coming up next week {beginning Monday, April 23} and I'm committed to doing it again this year. I'm a little nervous, every time I work on one of these projects, bad things happen. {The first year, I threw my back out and didn't move for 4 days. The next year, we heard about Mike's job. When I did DITL in February, it was the day I found out we might not be able to open Gather - fortunately, they all worked themselves out eventually}. I really don't want anything bad to happen next week!! Anyway, I'm not doing much prep. I'll use Ali's daily sheets, most likely, and incorporate my pictures into some Project Life inserts. I'm taking a very laid back approach to the project, and I'll be interested to see how it works out.
• Speaking of Project Life, I'm still plugging along. I had my "real" camera out all weekend and took pictures at the kids' school carnival and at church on Sunday. It felt nice to actually take photos again. Just have to print the last couple weeks out and carve out some hours to get them in my album.

Honestly, there's even more that's going on, but I'm out of time to write for today. I hope everyone has a great day!