I may be really behind in blogging Project Life, but I am not nearly as behind in actually putting the pages together. (And a few days of Hurricane Sandy-imposed hunkering down should help me catch up completely!) I’m still really happy with this project, and I’m finding that as long as I take notes in my designated Project Life notebook each week with what happened/highlights as it were, I can put the pages together after the fact relatively easily. I’ve been trying to plan the pages out as the weeks happen, too, and that also goes a long way.

Week 12 was a pretty low key week; Dan and I went to a Somerset Patriots game with his parents as a late birthday present (and this is vital, because it was at a Patriots game in 2008 that I like to think the Dan+ET spark was lit; we make sure to go to a game together every summer since, and have stuck with it for four years now). I also started to feel the pull between my old job and the one I was about to start.

I used flair from Oromolu to note a good Monday that featured sushi lunch with my brother, and printed a photo from the Patriots game 6×8 to fit into a few pockets.

We ordered our wedding invitations, which was huge, not only because the design was being discontinued; it took some wrangling to even be able to view all of the matching pieces. Luckily, we were able to get the order in. It makes it seem so much more real. I made a 4×6 card in Photoshop with a screengrab of our order confirmation, as well as a 3×4 card so I could write a bit about our Arrested Development obsession. I printed a card with the route from our place to Dan’s brother’s new place, as we went there on Saturday for their housewarming, which was super fun. (I do love using that Elise Joy stamp on maps!)

Week 13 featured a trip to my new job for training, our first movie trip in a long time, and the big one: the annual Day at the Races run by my cousins’ company. It was my first year being there as an employee, and it was such a great day.

(I totally saved the scratch off portion of my guest parking pass – how perfectly Project Life is that?)

I used a Design J insert to document the Day at the Races; I took a million photos that day, and it was really tough to decide which ones to include. I was saving bits of paper all day for Project Life: our entry tickets, pages from the program, betting receipts… and it was totally worth it.

The back of the insert.

Our wedding invitations arrived, which took it to another entire level of surreal. Journaled a bit about finally telling everyone at work that I’m leaving, some instagram shots from a bbq at my sister’s house on Saturday night, and a few tweets. I love how easy it is to make it all look more cohesive, just by carrying the same Martha Stewart Avery labels and washi tape accents throughout.

Week 14 was full of big events: a bbq at Dan’s sister’s house, two fantasy football drafts, and oh yeah: my last week at my job. Super eventful.

We finally started watching Walking Dead, and it totally took over our lives in a way that had to be acknowledged. My heart melts into a puddle seeing Dan interact with his nephew, who was about ten months old here.

I had this plan for a while, and seeing how it all came together is fantastic. I used a Design J insert to document a Week in the Life at my job, the last week I was there. I kept notes each day about how the day went, how I felt, and took phone photos of things I was doing each day that were very noteworthy. (I did many things on a strict schedule at that job: certain reports every Monday, Wednesday, etc etc, so screengrabs of those reports are really cool to look back on.)

The back of the insert, with a photo of the company logo on the door and some of my never-ending adding machine tape. So glad I took the time to do this; this is the kind of thing that will be even cooler to look back on in five years. I’m planning to document a Week in the Life at my new job once I get settled, too, since they are so different.

Paper Source bags make really great journaling backgrounds; just sayin’. I used some thickrs for my last day scalloped card (which was from Elise‘s summer kit), a Kelly Purkey stamp on my Last Day at My Job Happy Hour Vodka Tonic, and cut up an amazingly stripey Lands End Canvas catalog cover for the bottom pocket.

Oh Project Life, you are really damn cool.

Weeks 10 and 11 (the last week of July and the first week of August) weren’t uneventful, per se, (actually, week 10 was really hugely eventful) but I didn’t take very many real photos either week, so these pages aren’t perhaps the most interesting I’ve ever put together. But as wiser people have said before, Project Life is more about the sum of the parts rather than every spread being the best thing ever, so I’m not unhappy about it, either.

Week 10 seemed like it would be a return to normal life, but it ended up involving some big life decisions that I’m really happy about. Apologies for all the blurred journaling – there are some things I don’t really need the whole internet to know.

I’m most excited about the half circle – which is the Triumph coaster from last week. I printed a pretty sky photo on cardstock and cut it to the shape of the coaster, and glued it to the back, journaling right on top. (That’s a quote from a Weakerthans song that has always resonated and seems apt this week.)

I finally got to use the Thickers I bought at Michael’s a few weeks ago – so fun. And lots of washi tape this week, now that I’m free to use what I bought for our wedding stationery.

The right side – again tons of journaling this week. I’m loving the chevron stamp I got at Paper Source a few weeks ago (and that’s actually extra paper from my sister’s wedding invitation pocket fold – that color is the best and I couldn’t let it go to waste).

Photos from our celebratory dinner; a quote I printed from Pinterest this week, and a glimpse at our wedding day countdown paper chain.

Week 11 wasn’t boring, I just didn’t take many photos, camera or phone. Dan’s nephew was so serious when he woke up from his nap while we were there on Saturday – and seeing Dan interact with him is one of the sweetest things ever.

Ice cream – the first cone I’ve had all summer (how is that possible?). I used one of the stamps I bought from Kelly Purkey’s stamp shop, and I love how it looks on the photo.

Journaled on a library card and stuck it in an envelope (that wasn’t quite the right size, so I cut it down). Included some photos from a normal weeknight dinner at my parents’ house (that’s flair from Ormolu). The transparency was included in the summer paper pack from Elise’s shop, and I keep forgetting to plan ahead to be able to make the most of it over a two week period.

Week Nine! I still love it!

I am so glad I insisted on taking photos of me and Dan at the sushi place (our favorite) – I felt silly but I love having them. I need to work harder to get photos of us in here, and of us together. But when we go to this particular sushi restaurant, we each always get the same thing. Every single time. (Sushi dinner deluxe for Dan, and spicy California and sweet potato tempura rolls for me.)

We finally sent out our save the dates this week, and naturally, I mailed one to our apartment so I could include it (and the washi taped envelope) in Project Life. Don’t tell me it’s crazy.

The back of the insert (which I used a cut-down Design D page for)

Lots of orange this week.

Instagram photos cropped square, Martha Stewart labels, and a crazy thunderstorm photo.

One of the core kit journaling cards Jodi sent me this week; I’m trying not to buy a core kit because of all of the awesome paper I already own… but it’s so nice when the card already fits into the page so nicely.

A beer sampler photo and the coaster – I may have to be creative next week to make sure the coaster doesn’t look dumb once I fill in the back of this section. And Amy and Emily!

So the week from July 15 – July 21 included almost all of the big events for summer 2012, namely my sister’s rehearsal, Dan’s birthday, my sister’s wedding, and my 31st birthday. Whoa. It was a crazy, busy, and exhausting week full of some of the best fun ever.

The birthday boy at the rehearsal dinner, the bridal party and a business card from the restaurant… my last Project365 photo, journaling about the first half of the week, and a photo of the wrapping job I’m super proud of.

I used a 6×12 insert to save my sister’s wedding invitation, with her save the date and bridal shower invite on the back.

I included a baseball card sheet protector full of my favorite shots from the wedding – these were all taken by me, my dad, or Dan throughout the day. I knew I’d want to include a lot of wedding photos, but wasn’t sure how to do this, because I didn’t want to sacrifice quantity for size… I still wonder if I might add another insert when my sister gets the professional photos back, but we’ll see. I love seeing everything all on one page like this, too.

My beautiful sister, the moment I will never forget: my dad’s expression and my sister’s smile as they walked down the aisle, and me walking back up the aisle with James’s brother, the best man.

The back of the insert.

My parents, my godmother and her husband, and my grandparents’ best friends, who all came to the wedding. LOVE this photo. (I glued some of their favor ribbon to this card.) And my 90 year old grandmother, doesn’t she look amazing and SO happy?

It was such a great day.

A full page for my birthday!

New pink labels from Paper Source, along with a page from a 6×6 Amy Tangerine paper pack.

A piece of the birthday card from my parents (that I adored), and a 31 I typed up and printed. Oh! And my hashtag stamp from Kelly‘s shop. And my birthday self portrait, of course.

This week was pretty straightforward, although not a lot of “big camera” photos, so I kept the instagram ones square and smallish.

Simple simple simple: but everyday life. And! One of my awesome stamps from Kelly‘s new shop!

The right side: lots of Martha Stewart Avery labels, one of my favorite Arrested Development quotes ever, and washi tape, too.

I love the red card with the orange and white baker’s twine and washi tape, even if trying to get the card into its slot with the baker’s twine tied on is almost impossible.

An awesome, awesome Saturday at Zeppelin Hall (a traditional German biergarten in Jersey City)… I couldn’t get any business cards there, so I screengrabbed their logo and added it to a fun photo of Dan and a photo of more beer in Photoshop.

The first week in July was jam packed with fun stuff that I absolutely wanted to document (or, I wanted to save at least a full page to devote to the Mets game so I adjusted accordingly), so I included a full 12×12 insert to have four pages for this week’s spread, and I’m so glad I did: this is one of my favorite weeks in Project Life so far.

The left side includes one of the busiest weeks I’ve ever seen at work, made even crazier thanks to the short week, as well as a super fun and low key barbecue at Dan’s sister’s on the 4th of July.

Here I’m using an Ormolu flair button along with my absolute favorite Martha Stewart/Avery labels.

Dan’s nephew is getting so big and he’s so happy all the time. The bbq we went to was full of amazing meats (ribs! chicken! steak!) grilled by Dan’s brother in law, and easy funtimes with Dan’s sister and brother and their significant others. This was my first foray into using Photoshop Elements to cut out and combine two photos (the colors were off thanks to the warm indoor light + backlit sliding door so I’m glad I was able to salvage them to include them in my book after all).

This is the front side of the insert, which is a Design D page (which I incidentally thought I’d use SO often because I like taking vertically oriented photos, but it’s so easy and straightforward to just keep using Design A all the time, plus I love the consistency). This covers Thursday and Friday, in which we met up with our former-NJ friends who were visiting from PA, I got some pizza lunch, and then hung out with Amy and Emily while the boys were at their nerd weekend.

I’m really happy with how the scalloped card looks, and I had to include the logo for Dan’s nerd conference.

The back of the insert, full of photos and journaling from the Mets/Cubs game I went to on the 7th at Citi Field with Kelly, Jodi, and my brother.

Favorite use of Elise‘s “you are here” stamp to point out our seats on the Citi Field map that came in the mail with the tickets. And the screenshot of us on the replay of the game, of course.

I had the hardest time getting these photos to work with Design D. I kept coming up with ideas that worked with Design A and had to keep messing with them and reprinting. I’m so happy with the result – because I love both shots (that came out cute despite how insanely hot and sweaty we all were!) and really wanted to include them. I ended up fading a corner of the shot of Kelly, Jodi and me and typing some journaling right on the photo using Photoshop. Plus, I couldn’t handwrite that much in that space, so getting to adjust the size until it fit perfectly was definitely the way to go.

And the coup de grace, of course: a full page photo of Citi Field, which I’m SO JAZZED about. I attached my ticket stub, too, of course. I ordered a 12×18 poster print from snapfish and then cut it down to fit into the slots. The price and quality of the print were perfect, and I was almost sad to cut it up into pieces, except that I knew how worth it would be.

Another very big week – this week had all sorts of random things, including a minor league baseball game, a new windshield, a movie, and most importantly, my sister’s bachelorette party. I had too much to include, so I cut down a standard page for an insert, and then was able to devote a whole page to photos from my sister’s bachelorette party.

The left side; again I am happy with the cohesion of the colors (even though it’s kind of unintentional as I’m randomly pulling papers from my pile).

Getting my windshield replaced totally stressed me out. I’m glad it’s done but I’m also nerdy-happy that I managed to get a photo of my car sans windshield, too.

That thunderstorm commute made an impact, and the photo I took while I was pulled over conveyed the freakiness fairly well. The Today stamp is from Elise‘s stamp shop, and the Monday journaling card is from Ormolu.

The front side of the insert: a photo of Dan I totally love, my baseball game ticket (and an extra beer coupon), and beer, of course.

The back of the insert: love the orange/yellow! I printed a photo from the dressing room, cut out a bit of the paper bag from American Eagle, and printed the movie poster for Ted, which I saw on Friday which a bunch of my friends.

When my office barbecues, we mean business, that’s for sure.

A full page dedicated to my sister’s bachelorette: overly pink, of course. Our limo driver took the photo of all the girls on the party bus, and I took the photo of the bachelorette banner we taped to my sister’s back deck the next morning.

An Of Monsters and Men song that’s been stuck in my head lyric, and a more detailed description of the night inside the chevron pocket. I also printed the image from the evite we sent out, and I’m glad I thought to stick the bridal party bracelet I wore. This is the part of Project Life that appeals to me so much: I loved the design of the invite, and I’d want to keep the bracelet but why would you keep something like that? To put it in a Project Life pocket, that’s why.

And I’m sure in ten years I’ll find the blurry photo of me drinking out of a tequila bottle in a moving vehicle hilarious (hell, I find it hilarious even a week later, just because it’s so out of character). So, you know.

I got a bit behind with the craziness of the last few weeks, but the day off for the Fourth of July helped me catch up. Week Four was a week with a lot of really fun stuff, most importantly: Renegade Craft Fair. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy putting this together each week. (It’s a lot.)

I love the unintentionally very orange theme this week.

Ordering my wedding dress is super noteworthy, obviously, especially after all the stress/not-fun times in trying to find it. But it absolutely needed to be documented. (And even more fun: I ordered it almost exactly seven months before my wedding day.)

The heat wave this week was big news, and I’m glad I thought to print screen the NJ high temperature map and the radar from the worst of it.

The right side, including the insert that was absolutely necessary. Way too many photos to NOT do an insert.

The opposite side of the insert featuring some of the booths I liked best.

Lots of journaling about our day at Renegade, and the middle pockets are some of the business cards I collected. Included more for pretty factor; even now I’m not sure I could tell you what each one sold.