Week 10 was Jasmine’s first week at preschool. It’s hard to believe it’s already been two months! She loves it! It was also a week of awful awful morning sickness, which is why it’s super simple. I used the Becky Higgins Seafoam kit here, and threw the entire spread together in about two hours. The photo collage on the second page is of a trip to an iron mine and refinery here in Sierra Leone, and it probably took the longest out of everything.

Weeks 11-12 were also without pictures, due to morning all day every day sickness. I got my iPad Mini in the mail, and spent every moment not at work curled up in the family room, reading and complaining about how miserable I was.

Lots of Studio Calico Darling Dear in Week 13. Every year since I can remember, Mom has made my brother and I Easter baskets. She mailed them to me when I was studying aborad and when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. And when I started dating Bertrand, she started sending him one too. Now that there’s three of us, she sends three baskets. Last year, Jasmine was too small to really enjoy them. This year, she got her first real taste of chocolate. Heh.

Weeks 14 and 15 were (almost) pictureless, so I combined the one picture I got with my week 16 trip to London! While I was there, I made a pilgrimage to Blade Rubber, London’s only stamping store. The ladies running the shop were lovely, and I was able to pick up some great London-themed papers!

Last week actually spent several days on my desk, waiting for me to finish putting it together. Most of it is Citrus Twist’s March kit, along with some older washi (my first washi is still my favorite washi!), and some great butterfly embellishments I’ve had since before Jasmine was born. I’m glad I was finally able to use them!

This week was dominated by the weekend. On Saturday, Jasmine went to a friend’s son’s first birthday, and Bertrand hosted the monthly poker night.

I selected a sheet from Basic Grey’s “Life of the Party” line for my title card, then ended up choosing the rest of the line while flipping through my stack of paper looking for matches. Alphas are October Afternoon’s Market Minis, and more Basic Grey. The stickers are AC Remarks Poppy District. And the arrow stamps are Citrus Twist.

I’ve been wonderfully surprised by how much my husband likes Project Life. He calls me to take pictures when my daughter’s being cute, when he’s doing something he thinks is funny, and whenever anything that might be interesting happens in the house. It’s wonderful.

When Jasmine was born, I spent four days in the hospital after my c-section, and Jasmine spent all four of those days in the NICU. She was severely jaundiced and wasn’t gaining weight. I’d forgotten how scary it was, until I started working on this album and journaling how frightened Bertrand and I were.

I’m doing Jasmine’s album half-and-half. Half 12x12s, half divided page protectors. I’m never going to scrap every picture, and not every picture needs its own page. I’m enjoying the freedom to simply slide photos into their page protectors and move onto the next set.

Everything in this layout was chosen to go with only Thickers I had with enough “o”s to make the title.  Wood veneer for the win!

My January Citrus Twist kit came in. Yes, I know February’s almost over … shipping to Freetown is shipping to Freetown. I posted the layout for Jasmine’s birth I made with it a few days ago, and figured it was time to start digging into the PL pieces. The kit’s gorgeous, with lots of teal and pink, and mmmmm chevrons.  I got a lot of use out of the aqua foam thickers, the Pebbles fillers, and that wonderful teal velvety ribbon.

This week was a lot of fun. A three day work week. The Embassy’s Black & White ball. Tons of news. And lots of pixilated pictures, since my employer’s got some strict rules about posting pictures of other staff online. Yes, those photos on the left page are of my daughter with a (empty) Yeungling bottle. She pulled it out the family room trash and I grabbed the camera.

Project Life has really made me step back and take more pictures. There’s a part of me that’s now asking, “Am I going to want to remember this?” Often, the answer is “Yes! With pictures!” And I get out the camera. And even when the answer is, “Yes, but I want to be in the moment,” I can sit down and journal the moment later.

I’m just now catching up documenting my documenting. Week 7 was plenty full. A friend’s last walk up the Leistershire Peak before leaving Freetown, and a huge party at our house for my section. A hundred people came, ate, and danced the night away.

Most of this spread was made with a Studio Calico kit + add-on, but I don’t remember which. Letters are from October Afternoon’s midway.

I’ve finally started working on my daughter’s scrapbook in earnest. That is, after all, the reason I got into this hobby in the first place.  Instead of actually getting to work on Jasmine’s photos, I spent the last couple of months just trying to find my style. When the January Citrus Twist kit showed up in the mail earlier this week, I knew it was time to start documenting my daughter’s first year. The colors were perfect.

The background paper is something from Moxie that I’ve had forever (and by “forever,” I mean about a year). I intended to use it for something else, but the teal here works really well with the teal and blue chevron and the bright pink ribbon. I used a lot of layers, like I did in my favorite JYC/DD layouts.

My plan is to do a combination of 12x12s and divided page protectors (thank you, Project Life!). I need to get caught up pretty quick, and I need to start prioritizing just getting the photos printed and filed over finding perfect paper and colors.

Week 6 came together pretty quickly. I hadn’t taken a lot of pictures, so I printed a couple of fillers. The “Do small things” quote is just black printing on patterned paper. “I love U” is a free download from Becky Higgins. And I found a picture of CAN winner Nigeria on Google Images. I’d probably pay for printables if I ever found something perfect, but for new, free floats my boat!

Flipping through my PL album this week, I’ve noticed an awful lot of orange. And teal. That may be because I’m using up a few kits that have orange and teal, but I’ve been surprised at how often those two colors show up in my photos. I’m especially surprised because I avoid wearing orange like the plague. Never-the-less, orange everywhere!

In any case, it’s interesting to flip through the book and see how much I grew as a scrapper during the two months I’ve worked on it. I’m definitely getting better at this papercraft thing as I go along.

December 9 – Christmas Lattes

I really like the die cut circles down the side of this page, as well as how all of the colors marry well together.

December 11 – Paper Traditions

This is one of my favorite pages ever. I know, I know, I know. I don’t have a lot of pages yet to compare it to. I like the layering of different patterned paper and then large flags I used to create a space to journal in.

December 16 – Christmas Entertainment

Once again, I love the layering. I also like how simple the layout is, and how well it draws the eye to the picture of us lounging on the beach.

December 22-23

I completed this two page layout just a few days ago. It’s more pretty flags, and more layering. I’ve clearly figured out what my strengths are, and I’m learning how to play to them.

I hate my Becky Higgins PL kit.

THERE I SAID IT.

I think the sayings are cutesy (read: cheesy). And the layouts for each card, even the journaling cards, really don’t suit my style. Gah. I spent an entire month simmering mad that I wasn’t get any use out of a kit that I spent a fortune on. AND I have more coming in a swap! What was I thinking?!?!?

So I decided to do something about the eyesore of the PL journal cards just sitting on my desk. I love the colors, I just don’t love anything else about the kit. You can see above that I cut apart a fair amount of cards, combined the cards with paper from other kits, and used a TON of washi. I like the way the spread turned out, although there are definitely some things I could do better.

Finally caught up! Whooooo! This week was all about settling back into work after our trip to Benin. I’d ordered several Project Life-like kits from Echo Park (Photo Freedom) and SN@P (Snap Lfe), but hadn’t gotten a chance to use them yet. Particularly for the SN@P line, the bright colors were turning me off.

I decided to force myself to use them. And I am so glad I did! I really like how the bright colors in the paper and stickers bring out the bright colors in my pictures.

P.S. Some pics pixilated and/or removed b/c I work for The Man and The Man has RULES.