Project Life 2016 - January

Hi all. Today I'm sharing all of my layouts for January. It's been a rather dreary and uneventful month (much like all Januaries) which makes me glad I made the switch to topic based layouts, rather than strict weekly spreads. I was excited to start documenting my 'ordinary' photographs (rather than holiday/vacation snapshots) in 6x8 as I'd only ever used the 6x8 size for mini albums before. So far it's working for me! I'm sticking to my plan of fitting Jan - March in my Ashley Goldberg album - It looks like I should have enough space. If all goes to plan, I'll use four 6x8 albums over the year. But Project Life (much like real life) never seems to go to plan - so we'll see! If I don't fall behind this year, it will be the first year I've managed to keep up to date :) I've learnt not to beat myself up about it and not to be too precious about my album. Simple and imperfect layouts are beautiful, too. 

I haven't completed my front page yet. I want some photos of me and hubby (and maybe Baxter, our dog) to fill those two spaces but we're both actually quite camera shy. Or rather, Mr Challis is camera shy and I'm usually the person behind the camera. So this will have to wait for now.

This was my first finished layout. At the start of the year, I spent quite a lot of time reflecting on my life choices so far. I felt restless and run down over the holidays and hubby was in hospital (getting a new knee) and I realised that something had to change. I thought a lot about how you measure success and what being successful meant to me. Did it mean expensive possessions and holidays? Or achievements and qualifications? I decided that happiness is the greatest measure of success and that in the new year I'd start taking big, huge, positive steps towards being happier. It seemed so obvious, once I realised it. A few years ago I was content with being miserable, so long as I was working towards the 'end goal' of having a well paid job. As it turns out, money doesn't make me happy. Sure, I like money enough, but it doesn't beat spending quality time with my friends and family or quiet mornings with a cup of coffee and a good book. I miss those things when I'm working long hours and sleeping through half the weekend. Out of all of these thoughts I took three words to focus on: brave, simplify and prepare. They're kind of the theme of this album now - and my life Jan - March. 

The quote in the flower-girl picture says: 

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

                                                            - EE Cummings

"If it's both terrifying and amazing then you should definitely pursue it"

"Let yourself move to the next chapter in life when the time comes. Don't remain stuck on the same page."

I've still got to finish the last page which I'm filling with 2x2 Instagram pictures (just because). So far 2016 has been more blah than rah, but I'm staying positive. My photography is improving, my mood is improving (slowly) and it even looks a little brighter outside. How is your year shaping up so far? 

Scrap targets for February:

• Take more photos of 'us' and other people we like
• Include the song lyrics I can't get out of my head
• Document my favourite things 

Nearly forgot to mention - I'm joined the Kellie Stamps team! I'm really looking forward to incorporating more of Kellie's designs into my pages because, let's face it, they're AWESOME. 

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