Life, Paper, Scrapbook – Blog Hoppy!

Life, Paper, Scrapbook is an Australian online publication featuring all things crafty and packed with inspiration and visual delights!  Issue one, Autumn 2013, can be found here, and just quietly you can see one of my project life pages on page 91!  Today a very exciting blog hop is happening – I am lucky enough to be a part of this blog hop and am lucky last 🙂

This week has been dedicated to Project Life – an amazing memory keeping system that is about recording and documenting your life – simply.  I am a PL newbie – starting this year, and I am LOVING it.  I find that I am recording the seemingly inane or minor things that occur – and trust me, these are going to be the big things in ten years.  Little nuances that my children say or do, alterations to the house, day to day routine – it is all recorded.  And I love that.  I love that it is something I can literally allocate an hour for and do justice to the Moloney week.  Much of our week is mayhem – but it looks even better in an album, and also makes me realise how fast time goes when those really horrible days do occur (two kilos of flour on the floor, overtired 2 and 3/4 triplets, 3 litres of milk in the drawer…).  My PL is honest, raw, and at times brutal, but it is aimed for my family and I.  I document a great deal – by hand, as I have not gotten around to digital.  I think I still love the smell, touch and array of paper!  I am using the Amber kit from Becky Higgins, as well as some Polka Dot Creative Mini Kits, Studio Calico PL Kits (have received two!) Amy Tangerine embellishments and Give a Girl a ….. stamp sets; and some bits and pieces of Seafoam & Clementine (both Becky Higgins).

Amber Core Kit

I started out very humbly and still think my pages are very simple.  But that is the point.  My title page was straight out of the suggested card placement for the Amber Core Kit!

2013 Title Page – Moloney Mayhem!

I then completed an “about” page – what I wanted to achieve this year in PL and a picture of each of us at that time.

“About Page”

I included the 4 x 6 information card that comes with the Core Kit – as I thought, for me, it was so basic and really needed to be there.  Meeting with the amazing Amy Tan earlier this month, I was amazed when she looked through my PL album, but also that she took a photo of my page using the Becky Higgins 4 x 6 card – yep, my album photographed by Amy Tan!!

Amy Tan 🙂

Every week I still love flicking back through the weeks and looking at them again.  Importantly, my kids love looking through their multiple ‘stories’ and visits to the museum or somewhere fun, and Hayden, especially now that his reading is becoming so proficient, loves reading my ‘stories’.  My husband is also a bit of a fan 🙂  So, for project life week here are a few of my favourite pages so far this year 🙂

Little angels when they are asleep 🙂

Brendan’s First Hair Cut

An insert on my special big boy Hayden – just about where he is ‘at’.

This is an insert – it is about Hayden – my eldest, and is about where he is ‘at’.  He has a tough gig being big brother to triplet siblings and does it so very well.  I am always incredibly proud of his patience, tolerance and absolute love for his siblings, no matter how disruptive they can be!  The back page shows a picture of Hayden at the same age the trio are now –

The back of Hayden’s insert

All about family!

Small details…

I love this page 🙂

Week Seventeen 🙂

Week 17

So I know this might be an overload of photos, but I have tried to restrict them!  Some weeks some saddening or frustrating things have happened – I have journalled those in bi-fold cards so they are tucked away for ‘our’ eyes only.  That is what is so wonderful about project life, and I am keeping it ‘real’.  I am busy, and have a handful of kids, so trying to record all that we do is so important.  In a blink of an eye my kids will be double digits and not saying the cute little words or calling me Mummy anymore.  Some weeks I feel the focus is on one child more than another – but this is ok with me – as they all do different things, and all have different attributes.  Hayden has a little more packed into his days other than Dora, painting, triplet trashing (a technical term for destruction by three at once – against any object!!) or toilet training so often does score a few more stories.  Work factors in as well – good or bad, as it is a very real component of everyday life.

I run my weeks Monday – Sunday, so my first week included December 2012.  I aim to print my photos out every Monday afternoon at Big W whilst doing the groceries post school run.  I then try to complete the week Tuesday night.  Lately, it has been getting later in the week as it has been hectic, but I am keeping up.  Which is the aim.  I have minimal embellishments – I stamp and use stickers & washi tape.  I am trying to use the Huey’s mists, but it usually ends up looking like my 2 year old did it..  Here is an example!

First attempt at a mist…

I hope you have enjoyed the pages and I hope even more so that you enjoy project life!  If you are a fence sitter – do it – you won’t regret it!  Keep it simple, and stick to the motto – “cultivate a good life and record it”.  Another incredibly cool person (Amy Tan) said to me the other week – “your kids won’t care what colour you used, or if it matches, they will just care that you documented it”.  So on that note – hope you enjoyed the blog hop.  And thank you for your visit 🙂

The other fabulous blogs in the ‘hop’ are –

Kellie Winnell

Kylie Bellar

Amanda Watkins

Bernadette Miller

Ali Moloney (you are here!)

There is also a giveaway on Life Paper Scrapbook’s website, thanks to Craft House – upload a PL page to the side bar to be in it 🙂  It is a mini kit – they are just gorgeous!  To enter, head on over to Life Paper Scrapbook 🙂

Happy Happy Friday!

Ali