PROJECT LIFE

I have all the habits and hobbies that are generally associated "memory keeping": journaling, scrapbooking, blogging, photography, and obsessive hoarding of business cards and ticket stubs that all resulted in products and keepsakes that were at one point my most prized possessions. As with many other people, I let most of these hobbies fell by the wayside in the years after school, getting married, and, subsequently, work, work, work.

Reid and I both work at Google headquarters in the Silicon Valley, and the work is fast, furious, and omnipresent; we spend a lot of time working (and/or studying for grad school) that we often forgot to stop and enjoy the little things that make up the daily grind.

Or rather -- we stop, take a picture of it with our phones, share it on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and/or Instagram (did I miss any?), and then we never look at it again. I needed a project and hobby that would help capture and document our lives on a regular basis - one that would result in a tangible, physical product that I could keep and treasure, but would not be limited by just photography or journalling, and I knew that "traditional" scrapbooking was not my forte nor passion.

That's where I was when I discovered "Project Life" last year -- a scrapbooking system and product line initially developed by Becky Higgins --  and loved the concept: a back-to-basics approach to scrapbooking and documenting your day-to-day life that allows you to make it as simple or involved as you want it to be.

Terrific in theory, but after only 1 week in, I found myself getting frustrated and distracted by all the beautiful work being shared on blogs and Pinterest. It was only after 6 months that I realized that comparing my work with others was totally not the point and was more detrimental than anything.

A year later, I finally worked out a system and style that works for me, and I am loving this project.

I really don't need any more reason to be That Girl that takes pictures of everything, but Project Life is now it. Project Life is where I keep photos I've taken with my phone that would otherwise never be looked at again, where I write down funny bits of conversation that I want to remember. It's where ticket stubs, swiped restaurant menus, clothing tags, and receipts go, instead of a shoebox in my closet.

 

While I do use it to keep photos and memorabilia from "big events" and our travels, the process of putting together these pages is what forces me to document and appreciate the daily grind in addition to those big events that make up our lives -- those are the ones I often overlook, but are just as important to appreciate.

While I don't quite have a long-term plan for this blog ever since I deprecated kolinateng.com/blog after adopting Reid's last name, in the short-term, I hope to use this blog to connect with others that are just as excited about Project Life living and documenting their lives.

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[ THE SPECIFICS ]

• I work in the 6"x8" format, using Studio Calico's Handbook. 
• I re-punch holes in the Simple Stories's Sn@p! Pocket Pages to fit in the Handbook because I prefer the quality over Studio Calico's own page protectors. 
• Papers are cut down from various American Crafts paper pads with the exception of the Project Life grid cards.
• All journalling is completed with an old typewriter; I hate my handwriting but love the wabi-sabi nature of a typewriter.
• I jumped on the Tiny Attacher stapler by Jim Holtz bandwagon and it is awesome.

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