I know, I know, I know. Project Life is sold out and yet I keep bringing it up! You know why? Because you keep inspiring me. So I want to continue passing along the inspiration.
Aaaand … Project Life will be back in the house before we know it! We are anticipating September for the reprint of Amber Edition and Turquoise Edition and November for the two new 2012 editions. It’s never too early to get those wheels spinning, for those of you who:
A) are new to the Project Life concept
B) are already doing Project Life but anxiously awaiting the new arrivals
C) have friends + family members who should know about Project Life
So today I want to share with you two emails I recently received. One is from Gemma who is 17 and the other is from Karen who is 56. They are living on opposite sides of the country, in very different stages of life, with very different experiences. But they have something in common. They are telling their story. They are creating something so simple, and yet so much more valuable than they realize.
……….
{ Gemma from Bainbridge Island, Washington }
Hi Becky,
I am 17 years old. I started scrapbooking when I was probably 11 or 12. I love scrapbooking. I love being able to put my family’s memories in a book so they can look at it and remember it. Four years ago my family moved. I kept scrapbooking but I found it harder and harder to find time while I was adjusting to a new neighborhood and school. Then I just flat out stopped because I was so overwhelmed with all that was going on in my life. Earlier this year a family member of mine introduced me to Project Life. I started to do the digital version. It has really changed my life. I love being able to sit down with my parents and show it to them. I do not feel like I have to spend so much time trying to be the one who preserves my family’s memories.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much!
Gemma
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{ Karen from Pennsylvania }
Dear Becky,
I recently finished reading more than 200 letters that my father sent to his parents while he was serving in the Marines right after World War II. Reading each one of them has been an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life. My father has been gone for 18 years now, but I heard his voice again for three wonderful days. As I read, I heard my father trying to calm my grandmother’s concerns about the girls he was meeting on leave. (And now I know where my worry gene comes from!) I heard him give supportive words to his little brother about schoolwork and heard him tease his parents about their car, which seems to have been on its last legs. And I now know where that insidious melanoma cell that took him away from us far too early came from — he served in Califormia and spent many weekends going to the beach or pool to “get some color” in his pale, freckled skin.
I heard and learned so much, but I am greedy. Now I want to see it all, too. I want to see the barracks that he complained about. I want to see photos of his Marine buddies who meant so much to him. I want to see him roller skating. I want to see the girls who had my grandmother so worried. I want to see the house that all of those envelopes were addressed to. Unfortunately, this will never happen. And that is why Project Life is so important to me.
I am 56 years old. My children are now grown and living their lives happily , so my Project Life book is not full of their everyday adventures and experiences. But, I will have a record of the times we do get together, of the movies and plays that I have seen, of the books that I have read, of the recipes of family favorites, of the friends I now have time to see more often, of the events of the day. I am still living a life of everyday moments worth recording.
I am doing Project Life not merely for myself or for my children, but also for a great-great-granddaughter or grandson who will share my gene for wanting to know everything possible about his or her ancestors and their lives. He or she will want to know what I looked like, what my house looked like, how I spent my days. It doesn’t matter that I am not documenting the life of a young family. There is still so much of the everday life of a 56-year-old that I know will be interesting to someone, somewhere down the line. Answers to questions about life in 2011 and beyond are the gifts that I can give to those who come after me.
So, to all of your followers of ”a certain age” who feel as though they are struggling to find topics for their photos and/or journaling, I suggest they think about the questions their great-great-grandchildren might have about life in the year 2011. What seems so mundane to us now as we live day to day will be fascinating information for others later.
Thank you, Becky, for creating Project Life so that one day, decades from now, someone with pale, freckled skin and a healthy dose of curiosity will come across my Project Life book in an attic, wipe off the dust, and be transformed to another place and time.
Best,
Karen
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Okay, goosebumps. You got me.
Side note from Karen regarding the photo above: “I am holding my Project Life opened to the spread for the week during which I started to read my father’s letters. On the left is a collage of the typical places I stop by on an errand run (bank, drug store, etc.). On the right side, bottom left, is a photo of the old shoe box that contained all 205 letters. Also included on the right are a photo of the new eyeglasses I picked up that week and a photo of my cat playing fetch. Finally, there is a photo of my two children, whom we met for dinner at my son’s favorite restaurant in Arlington, Virginia .”
Tags: digital Project Life, Project Life
Karen’s story is really really touching and thanks for sharing. I know that my grandmother saved everything and I really do enjoy thumbing through old newspapers from when she was young and seeing children’s dresses on sale for .25
It is nice to hear about someone that has children out of the home too. I feel like my days are about the same and have trouble finding what I think are interesting things on a daily basis. I am glad she made us think of what we can do, I love looking back in the past and hearing the stories of the past. I hope the next generations continue to love that. Thank you Karen but again thank you Becky for bringing this project life to LIFE!!!
This is my first year doing Project Life. And.I.love.it!!!
I love it so much, in fact, that I’m including more photos and “stuff” than I ever thought I would and my binder is overflowing…
So the other day I just “happened” to see that the binders alone were on sale at Amazon.com and I bought another for the second half of 2011!!!
I’m so excited to “start” over!!! A WHOLE NEW EMPTY BINDER!!
Can’t wait!
WOW. Just Wow. And ditto on the goosebumps.
Thank you for sharing Karen’s email with us!
Thank you Karen for sharing your perspective, PRICELESS!
I love Karen’s story – so relevant, especially for our “generation.” Our children live in a world of fast technology, but nothing compares to a scrap book – the real deal.
I used to scrapbook a lot when I was younger….until I went away to college. I started a blog at that point which has helped me to document my life, but I anxiously await the day when I can scrapbook again. I can’t wait for the new project life to come out….it’ll be on my Christmas wishlist for sure.
Wow- this is so awesome and helps me remember why I enjoy this hobby so much. thanks for sharing!
Thanks Karen for sharing your story! You’ve inspired me to continue with my Project Life as my children grow and move on. I often think about mine and my husbands parents being retired and not taking pictures to share with others. I’ve often thought “will I be the same way as my children grow and I get older?” I bought my daughter whom is now a college student her first Project Life book for Christmas last year. We are both taking pictures of everything in our life. Things from birds that come for a visit on our fence, a snake found in our pool on Mother’s Day, my daughters recent shopping spree (as a college student this doesn’t happen very often), a five minute rain that decided to tease us, temperatures for the week (we live in Texas, right now we are in competition with the temperatures in 1980), silly pictures, etc. We’ve just recently began journaling “I Want To Remember” for the week. Instead of using the journaling cards, we’ve decided to type up our memories using different fonts. We were already typing up our memories, but there just wasn’t enough room. We adopted the idea from Ali Edwards. I want to contiue this after all of our children have grown and moved on. Thanks for your inspiration!! Thanks for sharing Karen’s e-mail Becky!!
the best thing I have learned about this hobby of ours is to have a “Past Perspective”. It was the focus of Ali Edward’s Yesterday and Today class and it is exactly what Karen has. When we document our lives, we need to answer the questions we have about our ancestors–what are the questions we wish they could answer. Those are the questions we need to answer in our documenting.
Thank you Becky for sharing Gemma and Karens letters. I have been extremely busy with summertime travels, busy with my 3 boys, visitors, etc that I have let Project Life slip a bit this summer. I am doing both the digital and paper versions of Project Life. Karen’s letter hit a chord with me and made me sit back and think about what life will be like when my kids are all grown up and out of the house… what I would want them to remember… the everyday mundane things that don’t seem like that much now may just BE the memories that will hit a chord for someone in the future… thank you for the goosebumps!
Wow! Both of these stories are amazing. That a teenager is documenting her family’s life, and that an empty-nester acknowledges that her life is and will be interesting to her family now and in the future. I wish my parents and inlaws would do this!!
Thanks for sharing! As a 30 something single with no children, I often think my life is “boring”. I am doing Project Life this year for the first time, and like Karen, I think about what future generations would like to know about my life and the world today. I wish I had first hand notes/journals of the “boring” things in my Mom and Grandma’s lives. Even if I never have children, my nieces and nephew (and someday their children), will have this record of my life (and glimpses of themselves in the things we do together now while they are young). Thank you for Project LIfe! I am really glad to be creating this album.
Wow! I loved these stories. Karen, you are so right, every life has value, no matter what your age or season of life, and is worthy of documenting. Thanks Becky for sharing these inspiring stories.
Thanks for sharing these stories Becky, I could read stories about how people use their Project Life kits everyday. They are so inspiring!
These are great. I am counting down until the new ones are out, along with the reprints as I was dumb and didn’t buy mine earlier!!! I have been looking at the pictures from my own childhood, and want to re-organize and add information about them before I forget for my kiddos. I can’t wait to get started!!!
~Jen
WOW – Karen’s story really moved me. Totally doing this in 2012 – assuming I can get the product! LOL!!
This is what it’s all about…I love it!!!
Very cool. The possibilities are endless with Project Life!!
what a nice story from the person who doesn’t have young kids but uses Project 365 to document her life. What an inspiring story. It really touched my heart.
What an amazing story! I know exactly what Karen is talking about. There are those in my family who think I am obsessed with the camera, it’s always with me. But it is the everyday things that make up our ‘boring’ lives that we cherish later in life. So many people come through our local library searching for family history. What they find are ‘just the facts.’ They may know the birth date, possibly when the person was married and approximately the date of death. What they don’t usually know, and with what we cannot help them, is everything in between those dates. The house their ancestor lived in, their favorite music, their feelings on religion and politics, what they did for recreation (if they even had the time or energy). All that cool stuff is just what we are preserving. Nothing is boring but everything becomes either a memory saved or a memory lost. Project Life is so aptly named!
I ordered my kit from Amazon and am really excited to finally do this for 2012, but no page protectors are available through Amazon or anywhere else I can find. Any idea where I can find these to get started next week?
Well I’ve stumbled upon this post a year late but wanted to give a shout out to Karen! I am doing the exact same thing plus since my kids are in their 20′s and I never ‘finished’ their scrapbooks I am going back and incorporating some of the PL stuff to catch up. It won’t be PL in the traditional manner of documenting their everyday life but I saved tons of their artwork, certificates, award ribbons, photos (obviously!) and am going to finish this time. But I also bought a binder for myself (I’m the same age…well, actually, just turned 57 last week) and I am doing my own PL book–about our home, the way it looks, what I do with my girlfriend days out and weekends away, my frustration with my job status (unemployment), what my husband and I do/watch on tv, time spent with my grandkids, my favorite books/movies/tv shows, trips, days when I do nothing special, beach days, concerts I attend, etc. I’m having as much fun documenting my normal everyday life as I am going back and reliving my kids youth as I document theirs. Good luck Karen with your PL and thanks for your inspiration!
PS! LOLOLOL I forgot to mention: I love the photo of the glasses! I just flunked my eye exam when renewing my license so I will be getting new glasses as soon as I get to the eye doctor. What a great idea…I must take a photo of them and me wearing them for MY PL book!!!