Thoughts and Tips on Project Life Albums...
I am told that my personal family album I had on display at our pre-grand opening might have overwhelmed a few people. I thought it would be good to do a little blog post about it since I did not have the opportunity to chat too much at the opening (about my personal album that is). My Project Life Album for 2013 is about our Life and Family. One thing you need to remember is we are a household with two pro photographers and an abundance of technology skills. The amount of photos we take is a bit crazy. Not only do we pull out the big cameras for more special events/holidays we both have iphones that we use everyday. We both instagram and share on facebook (well me more than Dan) so my life is really well documented. And I mean Life...completely. I know Lily is most of that but we also capture things about our everyday lives such as craft projects, food (sometimes we cook cool things!) and other random day to day things. I blog both on Bliss Blog as well as Lily's blog (www.babyharlacher.com). So you get the picture. We might be slightly crazy :) But there is lots we have to share. So with that being said for my 2013 album I have organized it by week. Every Sunday I sit down with Dan and we pull out our phones and print anything from that week that we want to save. It does not take long and since my album is caught up to date it really is an easy project for me.
That might sound way too overwhelming for you. And that is okay. This is what works for me and my family and I love it. The idea that this whole thing is called Project Life makes perfect sense to me. Its YOUR project and its YOUR life. Whatever makes sense for you and your family is perfect. I know a few people who are organizing their albums by month. My mom has multiple albums and is organizing hers by grandchild. A few others are just putting pics in their album as stuff happens...so in other words mostly chronological but not necessarily so time sensitive. There are no rules. There is no way you have to create and organize your album. To me the best part of all this is just that you are printing images and saving them in a complete book. Someday our kids will really appreciate it.
One of my main pieces of advice on starting your album is to try and start current if you can. Keep yourself up to date and then work backwards. You will feel good that you are up to date and it wont feel like an overwhelming project you have looming over your head to work on. I started my album from Jan 2013 (and it was only a few months into the year when I began so I didnt have to go to far back). So this year is caught up and great. Once I got caught up I decided I really wanted to start from the year Lily was born (2011). Going backwards has been both crazy and rewarding. Going through all the photos we had taken and done NOTHING with made me teary. I wanted them printed. I wanted to be able to sit and look through an album with Lily of all the fun memories. (and she actually loves looking at it now!) I was so happy that I made this decision to go backwards and start from 2011. It does take longer to go back in time and organize yourself. It also means you may have more than a few images to print all at once (my mom had 600+ images...seriously). I am here to help. That is what the cafe is there for! You can utilize the open studio time ($10.00 per hour ) and can come organize and prep your photos for printing. We have templates to make 3x4's that will make your life much easier. I have a shoebox that I put cards in for each month so that I could organize my images prior to putting into my 2011 album. Again as I said at the beginning...I have an abundance of sources I am pulling images from so its a bit crazy. Once I had everything printed from 2011 and organized by month I began that album. Notice I said Month this time. Week by week for the first two years seemed a bit nutso even for me so I decided organizing by month seemed the best way to attack it.
If you are starting your album I suggest getting all the images slipped in first (its a bit of a puzzle piece) and then go back and fill in the holes with filler cards and journaling. Makes the process a bit faster then trying to complete each page one at a time. But again. Do what works for you. To me this should be quick, painless and fun. So make it that way. Deep breath. Decide what will be the best way for you to attack it and go for it. Please remember I am here to help. Open studio time at the Cafe is there for you thursdays and saturdays to work on images and/or printing. And Project Life Happy Hours (check our events page on our website) are there to come work on your album (no charge) with me! Its social and fun to work together on them. I want you to succeed. I want you to have fun with it. I will help if needed and happy to answer any questions or throw advice your way if you want it :)
Here if you need me...
~Whitney