Project Life Archives – Campfire Chic

Project Life Layout: Week 1

Yes, I am still working on Project Life.

Yes, I am still terribly behind on having completed layouts. I start my Project Life year on my birthday and end it the weekend before my birthday…and I’m working on about 12 weeks behind in last year’s layouts. Most of them are 80% done, they just need one or two final touches…as for this year? I am also about 12 weeks behind in this year’s project…and for those of you doing the math at home, I am 24 weeks behind.

While I haven’t finished sharing last year’s layouts, I wanted to go ahead and start sharing layouts as I finish them…because this is my project and doing it this way will help me catch up/finish.

My plan for this year is to keep my weekends together, so my weeks will usually be Monday through Sunday. With my birthday falling on a Sunday this year, I decided my first week should be a little different.

Here is my March 10 – March 17, 2013:

I love starting out my binder with my birthday…it is such a natural start and it is most likely going to start my binder off with something fun, like a trip! Last year, we went to Mammoth Lakes, California for my birthday weekend and this year we decided to visit Death Valley National Park to celebrate.

To incorporate a few extra goodies in this week’s layout, I included a Design H page protector by Becky Higgins (should be available soon), which I love to do for added dimension.

Here, you can see the layout when I flipped the Design H page protector to the left…a few extra photos and a membership sticker are on the backside.

This week was about: Death Valley National Park, “birthday week” eats like The Iron Press, running, buying some new climbing gear, and Rintu sleeping on his back.

My favorite part of this week’s layout is this section of the Design A page protector I used. I find that the Fuji Instax is best used for outdoor photos…and only for well-lit outdoor photos, at that. I love how sun-bleached the photos look and how they match the core kit paper so nicely! The photos were taken while we were in Death Valley. You can read more about my thoughts on the sandals I’m wearing in the first photo here.

I am using the Project Life Seafoam kit this year to help me keep things looking cohesive and to also quicken the process. I was able to share some of the extras with two Campfire Chic readers and am planning on splitting the Midnight Project Life kit (I guess it’s only available at Hobby Lobby right now?) with Amy Lapi!

The biggest lesson I’ve learned about Project Life? Keep it simple. And that’s what I hope to do with these kits.

Let me know if you have questions about any of the items featured in this week’s layout.

Are you doing Project Life?
How do you catch up when you’re 24 weeks behind on a weekly project?

June 4, 2013 { 14 comments }

Project Life Weeks 38 – 40

That whole thing about me catching up on Project Life? Yeah, that would’ve happened had I ordered my photos earlier. I totally thought I ordered them, but lo-and-behold, I opened up the PostalPix app and I totally had a shit-ton of photos waiting to be ordered! Wow. There are more photos on the way, but until then, I have a few layouts to still share.

These are weeks 38 through 40 and I’m still loving this project.

Week 38: November 25 – December 1, 2012

This week was pretty fun because we were recovering from Thanksgiving while also preparing for what is technically our first climbing trip. I was trying desperately to not get sick this week, because getting into the desert was super important to me. This was the week Alex gave me my Omni-Heat jacket (it’s a Christmas present, but I needed it!), I received my UR Sportswear climbing shorts (still not warm enough to wear yet)…and going out to Joshua Tree National Park.

This layout has an insert, which I trimmed to 2×3 pockets. The original page protector is 12×12 and it is broken down into 4 inch squares in a 3×3 formation. You can buy the insert via Amazon. Usually, I would use a slide page protector to slip 2×2 inch photos into the insert so I can include a ton of photos into a layout, but this time I wanted to try using this size…if you look closely, I include both 4×4 inch Instagram photos (printed through PostalPix) as well as grid photos (also printed as 4×4) so I can include even more photos!

Looking to tell stories in your Project Life layouts but not sure how to include them? Check out the Project Dig Deep ebook!

Week 39: December 2 – December 8, 2012

Finally, the holidays are starting to get into my binder! A few of the photos are wrapping up our Joshua Tree NP visit (including one with some mega sun flare and big breakfast!) while most of the others focus on the holidays. I included a photo of the cover of my December Daily album to remind myself that I started on time and what it looked like, should I ever lose the album. The best part of the week? Alex and I picked up not only one Christmas tree, but two Christmas trees! I love being taller than our tree…almost as much as I love that Rintu didn’t destroy the tree ;)

Week 40: December 9 – December 15, 2012

Again with the 4×4 inch pockets! This time, I used the full 12×12 inch page protector instead of a “project life specific” page. This was a weird week…I still remember it all too well. It started with going to Rockreation (our climbing gym) for the first time and getting cleared as a belayer for the top rope climbing area and going to Renegade Craft Fair with Alex. My work had our end-of-the-year party on Tuesday and I spent Wednesday through Friday on the couch sick. Lots of sick days used up that week…So the week was full of soup, kitty snuggles, and tea in various forms. And yeah, that’s Rintu’s paw in the top corner, he was so pissed I was taking photos in “his” spot by the window. Jerk. Friday night and Saturday were better…I pulled myself together for Alex’s work party and an evening in Santa Monica.

I already started working on my Year 27 Project Life binder. It’s super full of Seafoam, but we’ll see how long that lasts. There are a few cards I won’t be using, so if you’re interested in some of the pieces of the kit, let me know. It’s some of the week title cards, the folding 4×6-to-3×4 cards and some of the 3×4 cards.

Are you working on Project Life?

March 20, 2013 { 2 comments }

Project Life: Week 36 – 37

Project Life by Campfire Chic

I’m loving this little quest of mine…finishing my first year of Project Life before my next birthday. Which is in about 2 weeks…so expect a few more of these Project Life posts between now and then!

Week 36: November 11 – 17, 2012

This was a big week for me! I got a TON of photos for Project Life in the mail after a long hiatus, saw that one of my layouts for Project Dig Deep was used in a promo email from Big Picture Classes (!!!), Alex and I took our last trip to Disneyland as Annual Passholders, and I shot a gun (a few, actually) for the first time.

Before we start going through and commenting on gun control and what-not, I just want to let you all know that I was invited by a friend from work after he had found out that I haven’t shot a gun before. We went through all sorts of safety protocols, I didn’t shoot anything I wasn’t comfortable holding, the range officer stood behind me almost the entire time, and nobody pressured me to do anything I didn’t want to do. If you do decide to leave opinions, please be civil and know that Campfire Chic is for encouraging others to learn more and to do more…not for bringing others down or for spreading hateful things.

Week 37: November 18 – 24, 2012

Now…I’m confused. I’m sitting here writing this post and the dates totally don’t match up. I think I’m missing a week…because the right half of the page is Thanksgiving stuff…and the dates above (if I did this all correctly) don’t match with that. All Fixed!

~~Despite my confusion, (I’m sure I’ll figure it out later and come back to edit this post) let me go through this week a bit:~~

This week was for seeing Lincoln in theaters. I liked it, but it was a bit long…and not enough JGL, but that’s a different story. Rintu took to sleeping between my legs and showing off at how flexible he is. I bought some beer based on the packaging — I’m not really known for enjoying/drinking alcohol, so this was really out of the norm for me. But in the end, I really liked it!

Now…the second half, which takes place a week after the dates posted above (still confused!!) shows a photo of Alex and I in the small gym in our apartment community working out before heading to our separate events, some pie, a game of Scrabble, and my parents holding hands as we walked to some store on Black Friday. Love that.

As I go through and finish these layouts, I’m using the Seafoam Project Life Core Kit to help me fill some spaces. I’m running low on use-able supplies and needed a few things to spruce up these otherwise repetitive pages.

How are your Project Life pages coming along?

February 26, 2013 { 2 comments }

Project Life: Week 33 – Week 35

Goal: Finish the year’s Project Life layouts before I am more than 2 weeks into my next binder.

If you’re new to Campfire Chic, my Project Life year goes from March 10, 2012 to March 9, 2013…so I’m coming up on the end rather quickly.

Without further ado, here are some more of my Project Life layouts:

Week 33: October 21 – 27, 2012

This week was for yoga class, Rintu and Alex snuggling, free mac n’ cheese from Corner Bakery, plenty of green juice…and our trip to Zion National Park! This was our second trip to Zion, but our first time going canyoneering!

I trimmed a slide page protector to include 2×2 photos as an insert. I couldn’t possibly fit in all the photos we took on our long weekend in October, but it was nice to be able to fit in all of the ones I was able to using this insert. I think using a slide page protector is one of my favorite ways to include more photos in a layout. You can read more tips for expanding on stories through the Project Dig Deep ebook (I’m a contributor!) from Big Picture Classes/Ella Publishing

Week 33 - Project Life - Campfire Chic

Week 34: October 28 – November 3, 2012

We drove home from Utah on Sunday, it was a long trip, but stopping for Cracker Barrel is always a treat!

This week was comprised of two big events: Halloween at work (I was a fire breather) and the Color Run in San Diego with some friends! I made sure to include an empty packet of “color” from the Color Run and my color-stained racing bib. I’ll be running another Color Run in May, so I’ll have to think of a new way to include that in my Project Life binder ;)

Week 34 - Project Life - Campfire Chic

Week 35: November 4 – November 10, 2012

Back to a simple layout. Nothing fancy, which is nice.

I spent part of Sunday at Disney’s California Adventure with my mom and dad. We got discount tickets for doing the CHOC Walk a few weeks before then and it was the last weekend to use them. It was so cute taking my parents around the park! I just wish the temperatures were cooler so we could stay the entire day, but we made the most of the time we had. Yes, my mom and I got matching visors. We’re cool like that. This week was also for the 2012 Election (I stayed home that day), rescuing a dog on the freeway offramp with the help of my carpool buddy, donating blood (by myself!), hitting the comic book store, and hitting 5 stars on my quest to get a Starbucks gold card.

Are you doing Project Life?

You can see my other layouts here.

February 19, 2013 { 4 comments }

Project Life: Weeks 30 – 32

Did I mention that I am on my second binder for my first year of Project Life? I’m happy that I didn’t add so much early on that I was forced to use three binders…but I can’t say the same for the next round!

You can see my previous Project Life layouts here.

Week 30: September 30 – October 6, 2012

Can I just say that the Seafoam Core Kit is totally saving me as I catch up on these layouts. Some weeks are harder than others…and this one was holding me back like no other. I used the week card and a 4×6 journaling card that can be folded in half to 3×4 in case you have some secret journaling. I’m not much of a journaler, but I needed to fill the 4×6 space and I have photos from 3 different climbing locations/events so I figured it was a good opportunity to tie them together.

Also this week: I spearheaded the canned food drive for my division at work. Alex and I climbed at Factory Bouldering in Anaheim and Aesthetic Climbing Gym in Lake Forest. We went for sushi before heading over to the Gear Co-Op on Costa Mesa for a screening of Reel Rock 7…which was so awe-inspiring!

Week 31: October 7 – October 13, 2012

This was the week that I got my first pair of Warby Parker glasses, I found the perfect boots for Halloween (not shown), and we finally went apple picking. And my finally, I mean…we’ve been together for 6 years and each year we say, ‘maybe this year!’ and it never happens. Of course, we didn’t expect it to be so hot or so far away. There was some great corn, apple pie, and lots of of driving.

Week 32: October 14 – October 20, 2012

Now, if you’re not familiar with Southern California, you wouldn’t guess that it’s pretty much summer here from late June through Thanksgiving. Like, “why do I pay so much to live here if I am just turning into a puddle?” warm/hot. Also, FACT: Disneyland is way warmer inside the gates than outside the gates. Where am I going with this? My parents and I (bottom photo!) were crazy to do a 5K walk with thousands of other people through the Disneyland Resort on an extra-hot weekend. But at least we can say it was, “for the children” and I was able to buy discounted tickets for them to come to the park with me (I had a pass at the time) the following weekend. I caught my parents holding hands while we zombie-shuffled through the parks, and got a stranger to take our photo. It was nice to spend the morning with them, even if it took nearly 3 hours to go 3 miles.

Rintu got a ‘pet-ticure’ (soft paws) and wasn’t a fan. I was able to take a few extra-long lunches this week, try the apple cider K-cup (so gooood!) and picked up some great items at the Evolv warehouse sale. Oh yes, and we went to another newer climbing gym, Truhold Climbing in Mission Viejo.

…and I said I wasn’t one for journaling…

Anyway, are you doing Project Life?

Do you ever have one of those weeks were you just have a creative block?

January 28, 2013 { 0 comments }