Trybrid Documenter & App Smashing

I've decided my documentation method isn't really hybrid it's more of a "trybrid". (Yeah I made that word up). Choosing a format has always been a road block for me to forward with documenting so I've decided to just embrace them all and use what works best for each particular project I'm working on.

How I'm using it now and my train of thought on which formats I will use for different projects...at least for now...

• My kids first year baby albums will all be mostly physical, but I do use digital and the app to add to my photos and cards as needed, whether it be to create a collage to fit in more photos or add some flair with digital brushes & embellishments.
• My hope is to scrapbook their years after that with one layout per month and I'm already quite behind so I may use the app for this, but print 12x12 pages as these are too long term to wait to print in a book format, unless I did one skinny book per year.
• This is my first year doing a week by week album and it will be physical.  I can't help thinking about how many albums that could end up being so I'm keeping an open mind about format for this particular process in the future.

And that brings me to my other impromptu  project. With the upcoming release of photo books through the Project Life app I decided to sort through the thousands of pictures from our honeymoon in Italy and scrapbook those using the app.  I had already sorted the photos by location or event during our two week trip so from there I decided to choose my favorites were the ones that had the most meaning to me and put those into the book. I should probably add that we took this honeymoon in 2011 people!

For each location I choose a photo that represents it pretty well, quickly edit in PicTapGo and then use the app Font Candy + to put the name of the city or location as a sort of overlay on the image. I could do this in Photoshop but I'm trying to keep it all on my phone so I can pretty much do it anywhere.  In my teacher librarian world we call this "App Smashing."

These images start each section, then I throw in the rest, a few filler and journal cards and voila!

I really love how the pages are coming together and it is so fun to relive our time there through these beautiful photographs. Honestly I'm glad I waited because I think if I had tried this while the trip was still fresh I would have a really hard time "letting go" of some of the photos to narrow it down to what is really important to us and how we want to remember this trip.  One of my favorite layouts includes a collection of door photos we took throughout our trip.  After the fact I honestly thought why in the heck did we take these and now I'm so glad we did! I love them so much I may print them and frame for our walls!

Project Life Goals for 2017

Taking a queue from the lovely Becky Higgins I am taking a minute to write down my scrapbooking goals for 2017.  I have been giving this a ton of thought over the past couple of months, especially since having our third child in August.  I have been thinking about how best to move forward with scrapbooking for  all my children and for our family.

Making these decisions have been a huge road block for me over the past couple of years which is why I am now about three years behind!  I have been struggling with how best to make my memory keeping manageable yet meaningful for each of my kids.  What I have come to realize is that I need to quit worrying so much or who will get what and how the scrapbooks will be shared in the future and just do what I think will work best for now!

What I've done so far...
So far I have completed a physical album of our first son Lincoln's entire first year of life.  I discovered Project Life shortly after he was born and it was a game changer for me.  I was never a traditional scrapbooker despite my love for working creatively.  I knew this method was perfect for my style and I've been hooked ever since.  I sorted photos by week and went from there.  I tried to limit myself to a spread per week with additional pages used for heavy photos weeks or special events like his birth, baptism,etc.  I started out using a wide variety of layouts and by the end I tried to stick with just Design A to steam line my process.  I am still in the journaling process, but feel so great about his book being mostly complete. (See photos of page below)

I also recently created a summer vacation album for my mother-in-law documenting our get together this past summer.  I have also used Digital Project Life to help my sister create a community service scrapbook from her year at Miss Scott County in preparation for Miss Iowa last June.

Documentation Goals For 2017

• Create physical first year scrapbooks for our daughter Sloan's first year and begin working on Sawyer's before I get too behind or at least keeping on top of photo sorting. (I've already started editing and uploading photos to get printed for Sloan!!!)
• Weekly Family Album--This is my first year doing a weekly family album.  I am planning to print photos at home for this to help me keep on top of it.  
• Thoughtful picture taking and daily delete.  I have been trying to take most photos horizontal over the past few months to help with workflow and have been editing them as soon as possible using the PicTapGo app.  Deleting all the extras right away has been amazing and I plan to continue this process in 2017.
• Sharing with the Project Life Community via the 2017 Creative Team (Physical)

I know these are some lofty goals for me being a full time working mom with three kids under 4 but Project Life is something I love doing and am passionate about.  I am so excited to be a part of the 2017 Creative Team I'm ready share my work and process with the Project Life community and learn from my fellow teammates.  I want all of you to keep me accountable for achieving these goals in 2017!

Some of the pages from Lincoln's first year album.  These also happened to be my application images for the 2017 Project Life Creative Team.

The mom selfie...

Let me start by saying that I really do despise the selfie and I find it a bit sad that it was the 2013 word of the year. (see more info here)  With that being said, I take quite a few of them, by choice yes, but also out of the necessity that I would like to be documented as being a part of my son's life.  So these aren't your typical kissy face, over-edited type of selfies, rather they are my attempts at taking pictures of me and Lincoln together.

I am a photographer in hobby only.  I really found my love for it in college when I was an Art student and it has grown from there.  I love having my camera with me and I am always pulling it out to document even the smallest moments of our family life.  My husband does like photography as well and is actually quite good at it, but he does not share my passion for capturing the "moments" and so we are left with lots of pictures of Daddy and Lincoln and almost 0 of Mommy...hence the need for my poorly taken selfies.

I think this is true for most of the moms out there.  We are the ones behind the cameras capturing all the big and small moments of life for our kids.  I hope that one day my kids will appreciate the fact that while I may not be present in as many pictures, that I was there experiencing and capturing that moment for them.

Don't judge some of these...yes I did the act like you aren't looking face so that it at least
looked like someone else took it....sad I know.  I think even sadder are the ones that
only include my arm or hand, but at least he'll know it was me holding him!

Lincoln Thomas...11 Months

Height: 30.5 inches
Weight: 24 pounds

Month 11 Milestones

• Taking several steps at a time
• "Driving cars" with sounds effects
• Being pushed around in his push car with Rhea chasing him around...the faster the better
• Dancing to the Friends theme song
• "Talking" more frequently...Mama, Dada, Baby, Ray Ray
• Playing in forts

Lincoln Thomas...10 Months

Height: 30 inches

Weight: 23 pounds

Months 10 Milestones

• Standing Up-taking a few steps at a time
• Drinking from big boy cups
• "Talking" on the phone
• Playing on the couch/chair
• Playing with and climbing on Rhea

Lincoln Thomas...9 Months

Man this kid is growing up WAY to fast! I cannot believe 9 months have come and gone.  It is crazy to look back and see how much he has changed in such a short time.

Height: 29.25 inches

Weight: 22 pounds

Head: 46.4 centimeters

Months 9 Moments

• Crawling Everywhere
• Pulling up on Everything
• Climbing all over Rhea
• Lots of Dadas and the occasional Mama (sometimes I think he is purposely only saying Dada because I'm constantly trying to get him to say Mama)
• Dancing
• Eating just about anything
• Half headstands
• Laughing a lot

9 Month Appointment

Happy & Healthy!