Project Life (and a give-away)

Today’s Project Life spread covers the week of November 21-27, which was the week of Thanksgiving! 

Last week I wrote about what to do when when you are documenting a week with few photos.  Well, this week is quite the opposite– I had an OVER abundance of photos, momentos, and stories to share.   Deciding what to include, and what to save for a layout, can be a bit of a challenge.   

In addition to Thanksgiving we had a few other “big events” during this week.  We celebrated my mom’s birthday, went to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree, went to a movie as a family (yes i would call that a big event because it only happens a few times a year:), and Todd got to go to a Colts game for work.   I made sure to document each of these events in some form (photography, journaling, or a momento/found object).
The rest of the photos were some everyday photos (especially on the first page).  I find myself making an effort to really include these everyday photos, and not just the “big events”.  Some weeks may be more heavy on the everyday photos (like last week), but to be honest, these are my favorite photos when I look through my Project Life.
This week I included two inserts.  The first one, “so thankful” is in a photo sleeve by We R Memory Keepers which holds nine 3.5 x 2.625 items (about the size of an instax).  I took a stack pre-trimmed pattern paper by Sassafras, and Elle’s Studio Handmade Layers journaling cards to our Thanksgiving dinner and asked everyone to jot down a few items they were thankful for this year.  I told them they could be funny or serious– anything they cared to share was fine!  The result: This may be my most favorite item to date in my entire Project Life album.  I LOVE that it’s in the individual handwriting of my family members, and it was really touching (and funny) to see what some people wrote.  Truly a treasure. 

This is something you could easily re-create as we approach the Holidays.  This would be perfect for New Years Resolutions, birthday parties/celebrations, and graduations.  Any get together would be a great time to leave these journal cards/pattern paper out for guests/family members to leave their notes and thoughts. 

Both of my kids did Thanksgiving-themed handprint art work at school this week so I included these items in my week as well.

The final page covers the day of Thanksgiving and the rest of the long weekend.  I decided to tell the story of how we “pitch-in” for our holiday meals, and also the story of my Grandma using facetime (and really the iPhone in general) for the first time on Thanksgiving to talk to her traveling granddaughters in South Africa.  Those two stories (and the journaling cards) were the only items I focused on for Thanksgiving day.  I decided that the rest of the day could be documented in a layout.

Other “found” items I included for this week: the coaster from my mom’s birthday dinner, ticket stubs to movies/football game, and part of the rope twine that tied our Christmas tree to the top of our car as we drove it home.  I love including these found items each week.

Congrats to last weeks winner: April!!!  Please email info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information:
Name:
Address:
Contest: Project Life 11.30.11

Today we have another giveaway!  To win a Project Life Prize Pack worth $25, leave a comment here and let us know your favorite holiday tradition.  We will draw a winner next Tuesday, December 13.

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories.  Photo pockets used in my Project Life album are created by Becky and can be found here.  You can read of all the Elle’s Studio Project Life posts here.

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