Last night as I was working on Week 12 of my 2014 Project Life, my husband approached and looked at one of the photos I was including.  He said, "You just took this, this weekend, right?"  "Yes, I responded."  "That's pretty cool," he said as he set it down.




It hit me.  I am our family historian.  It's me!  I'm the one that records our family history and I couldn't be anymore proud.

For many years I was a digital scrapbooker.  I loved piecing together layouts in photoshop and uploading them to my favorite sites.  I was quite proficient, I'd produce dozens of layouts a week.   I saved them on my computer: a web version, a large print version, and the original .psd file just in case I needed it.  I rarely printed my layouts.  I had no reason, I just didn't do it.  They were safe.   I would literally back up my photos onto three external hard drives and whenever we'd leave the house for vacation, I'd toss one into my purse, just in case.  Then my hard drive failed and I lost all those beloved layouts.  Not my photos, just the layouts and that was pretty much the last time I digital scrapbooked.  

For a few years I couldn't even look at my photos, I'd get so upset.  As soon as I replaced my hard drive I invested in an online, automatic backup.    Fast forward to December 2012.  I was messing around on my iPhone one night and my kids had drug out all the old scrapbook books from before I had gone digital.  My daughter had asked me, "Mom, where are my scrapbooks?"  "What??? You're in there."  "No, I'm not," she said.   She was right.  All of her layouts were LOST.   I returned to my phone and started looking at literally 1000s of images captured on my phone that I had never even backed up.    I had to fix this.

I don't remember how I stumbled onto Project Life, I think it had something to do with a search for Project 365.   In any case, I found and fell in love with the concept of Project Life.   I'm proud to say that I not only finished the entire 2013 year, but also started and completed December Daily 2013, and I'm on target for 2014.  It has changed my life.  Truly.  It's made a difference for my family.

A lot has changed since I started scrapbooking nearly 20 years ago.  I used to take a million pictures and feel the need to scrap them all.   I then moved onto my big Nikon camera and would lug that beast all over snapping our moments.   Then I got an iPhone and my life changed again.  I'm mostly an iPhone photographer now. I don't know who to quote, but I love this, "the best camera is the one you use."   I realize I may not take the BEST pictures, but guess what, they are my pictures of MY family.  Are future generations going to complain? Hell no.  They are going to be delighted that someone, me, took the time to capture the moments.  I take lots of "selfies".  Lots.   Why?  So that I'm included in our history.  

I was recently complaining online about how I lost all my old digital layouts and a wise friend said, "go download them from the websites."   So I did.  I don't know how they'll print.  I don't care, I have something that shows that I did them.


And on a final note, I've started scrapbooking again.  Good ol' paper scrapbooking.  I'm seriously in love with it.   I'm having so much fun putting paper together in pleasing combinations.   I feel like I've come full circle.