Thanks to Katie for today’s guest post on documenting the magic of Christmas:

The magic of Christmas can’t be found wrapped up under a tree.  For me the true magic of Christmas has always been made up of all the ‘activities’ of Christmas.  My fondest memories of Christmas are not of the toys I received as a child but the things I did with my family.  Things like making crafty homemade decorations with my Mom, baking Christmas cookies (and sneaking them frozen from the freezer in the basement) and my all time favorite packing ourselves up in the car with Christmas Carols on the radio, and sipping eggnog while we drove around the neighborhood looking at all the lights.

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Week three is done, although I have a small digi layout to add later (hmm, sensing a theme there?).  This week I included some colouring sheets from Oliver and Penelope’s bi-weekly music class, some notes written on washi tape, and the wrapper from my favourite tea.  I’m on a mission to loose a few pounds, and I’ve been drinking boatloads of tea!

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Week two of Project Life is done, and so far I’m finding it easy to stay up-to-date and on top of things.  Actually week three is almost done too, just a bit of journaling left and maybe a few embellishments and it’s complete.  Between the PL kit and iPhoto it’s been really easy so far.

This week I launched the re-design of my blog, so one of my photos is a screen capture of my home page.  We also painted half our main floor on the weekend, so there’s quite a few pictures of that plus I included the paint chips for the colours that we chose inside a fold out journaling card (pictured below).  I have a few photos of my dining room covered in photos (meta) and other randoms from the week.  I added a couple of embellishments from the super hip Evalicious, which I love-love-love!  I’ll definitely be ordering more from her, they are divine.  I have what I call Guest Soap Syndrome (you know those fancy soaps your mother would never let you use?) – I buy all these supplies and then I ‘save’ them for…. for…?… I don’t know what!  This year I’m vowing to buy stuff if I need it and then actually use it.  Revolutionary stuff.

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My first week of Project Life is done, and I am having so much fun with this album!  I chose not to pre-load my album, but am doing each week at a time, choosing the supplies and elements I want to include as I go.  This week’s photos feature Penelope and her Little People (see my fascination with photographing toys), Oliver’s first day of pre-school and of course a photo of my Project Life kit!

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My Project Life kit came this week, and I’m so looking forward to starting my album.  I love photography and memory keeping projects, but I have a really difficult time finishing an album.  My digital scrapbooking pages are willy nilly in theme and chronology; like many creative hobbies, what I work on is largely dependent on my mood and current inspirations.  I certainly don’t have enough free time to dedicate to scrapping a yearly album any time soon.  Enter Project Life, a kit designed by and for busy people who want to document their family’s story with photos and journalling.  It contains everything you need to do a full year’s album featuring 356 photos (or more, depending on how you use it), and everything is pre-cut and ready to go.

I was really excited to open it up, and very happy with the quality and design of all the elements, as well as the packaging. Little boxes for the paper and journal cards make it easy to set up a PL station, or to take journal cards with you on the go.

I’ve been checking out the Project Life Community gallery, and although the majority of people are doing it right out of the box, there are also some creative takes on it. Creative folks like Ali Edwards and Simply Autumn use PL as a base for their albums and add their own elements, including what Ali calles “the stuff of life” – receipts, drawings, and other papers.  I’m taking inspiration from them to personalize my album, because as much as I like the idea of getting it done, I also want it to be my album, and not made by someone else.  I have some ideas, although no real plan… I’m excited just to get started and let it go where it goes.  I’m hoping to set aside some time every weekend to work on it, and am looking forward to documenting all the little bits that make up the story of life for 2011.  Look for updates every week or so, and if you’re doing Project Life or something similar, link up in the comments.

My December Daily album is coming together, and I’m loving the process. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a paper album, and it’s fun and rewarding to touch and feel everything. I’m done the first week – although I’m not too happy with one page I’m trying to move on – and working on my photos for week two. I didn’t expect to find time to work on it since we’re so busy with work, kids and holiday obligations, but the nasty snow/ice/rain/storm in Ottawa today was a perfect excuse to stay in my PJs all day and scrap. Thank you Mother Nature!