Starting a new endeavor-Project Life

I know that most of you have heard of Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I've decided to finally start one, although I think my day to day journaling and photos will be pretty boring. I mean, how many pictures of laundry and dishes does one want to look at? I don't have any young children who can fill the pages of a PL album with lots of laughter, anecdotes, cute sayings and all the daily frustrations of being a parent to a young child, although I'm hoping for a grandchild someday to help fill my pages with 'cuteness'.   Every day I find myself looking for something that would be interesting to put in my Project Life album.  And, each day I find myself staring at a blank piece of paper trying to find the words to journal.   Can my life be that boring?   Then it dawned on me that Project Life is just that----the day to day recordings of your life---MY life.  Perhaps it's boring, but years from now, my children and grandchildren will appreciate my daily, sometimes boring life---maybe.  

I've been keeping daily notes in a file and taking pictures everyday.    By the time I realized that I wanted to do this project, it was February.  I had missed an entire month.  So, I looked back on some pictures and took notes on what happened that day as I rememberd it.  I'm glad I'm only about a month behind and not more!   Now I needed to find the right album and pages.  I researched Becky Higgins' PL, and, as much as I love Becky's kit, I just can't afford it.   I had to find something that was just as nice but less expensive.   I drove to Michael's and found the perfect album by DCWV and bought it with my 40% off coupon.   Instead of using the album pages suggested by BH, I found photo protector pages by American Crafts and Recollections.

I also needed a box to organize my journaling cards, tags, stickers, notecards, etc and found this idea on Pinterest.   Melissa Stinson of  The Scrappy Jedi.  This post is great--you should click on it and read it.

I was so excited to buy what I needed for alot less than the kit. I plan on making my own journaling spots and have downloaded several really nice ones from several gals on Pinterest.

With this idea in mind, I drove to Michael's to find a similar tray to do the same thing.  I find that if  the items are right there along with the album and pages, I'll be more motivated to work on it each day.

 I couldn't, for the life of me, find a wooden tray, or box, that would suit the purpose of what I needed.  It was disheartening, so, after an hour of browsing through the wood section and scrapping section and finding what I needed to complete some swaps, I headed to the check-out.  As I headed out the doorway to the parking lot I saw a wooden box.  It was a wooden photo box, but I felt sure that it would work.   It was perfect and I had to have it. 

I picked it up and went back to the cashier to pay for it. There was one problem. No price tag. It was the only one they had and no one in the store knew what it cost. The cashier then asked me what I was willing to pay for it. Now I'm drawing a blank. What number do I give her? I don't want to go too low or too high. I hemmed and hawed for about a minute (maybe less) and said that I'd pay
$7.00. She then called the manager who kept me waiting for several minutes before telling her to tell me that he wanted $8.99 for it. I couldn't believe that I was standing in Michael's haggling over a wooden box! I finally agreed to the price because I wanted to have a box for my PL stuff.

Now the cashier sends another girl to go to the Manager's office and get a code in order to ring it up. The girl finally returned and what do I see? A paper attached to the same identical box that was sitting in front of me for the price of $14.99. What?! Now I figure that the manager is going to charge me the full price because he finally found a box with the correct price. But, as luck would have it, she rung it up at $8.99. I then drive home with my new goodies and motivation to get Project Life started.

Once I was home, I had to put PL on hold. I had chores to do and supper to get ready. As I was rummaging through my cabinet looking for a bowl, you'll never believe what I found. A wooden tray! That's right---a wooden tray that would've worked for my PL stuff.  It was handpainted by my grandson.  Why didn't I find that sooner? No matter.    Off I go to see if my plastic organizer boxes will fit into my photo box or handpainted tray.   Oh, oh.

My organizer boxes don't fit on the tray the way I wanted. Two of them do, but not all three. Oh well. I'll try the photo box.   Nope.  Only two.  Well, that was that.  I had two boxes for organizing my journal cards and tags.  I guess it'll be enough to start with.  I still plan on using my newly purchased box and will also keep the tray nearby---just in case I have an overflow. Now that I think of it, I should add this to my PL album. It's certainly more interesting than looking at a picture of socks and towels.

I wish you eventful days ahead.

Lori