And so the year has come to an end and my 2015 Project Life album is now a matter of record.
I spent the morning on Saturday gathering my final batch of photos to create the last pages for my big digital book representing daily life in 2015. I absolutely love the book I did last year and am planning to do the same thing. I have saved all of my pages as JPEGs and will be uploading them this week. Of course, when I get the book back, I’ll share the results.
The one thing that doing it digitally has done for me is to simplify the process. I didn’t spend time agonizing over which photos to use or which embellishments would add the perfect touch. I just wanted photos and words to show me a picture of life in 2015. And that’s exactly what these pages do.
Do I miss spending time on the more creative aspects of what Project Life can be? Sometimes. But on those months where I had more creative chutzpah, I used it. For most of the months, it was really just about stories and words. And not even that many words.
Are there a few too many typos in my collective pages? Maybe. A few too many selfies? Never. But on the whole, I love how it all comes together into this piece of time and memory.
Here are the last pages of the album. We start with November:
And here is December:
Here’s what I wrote for my closing entry:
And so 2015 comes to a close. So much to be grateful for: our health, our families, our lives in general. Life continues to move onward and here we are, the four of us, navigating change and the everyday stuff that makes up our experiences. Do I wonder where life has gone? Sometimes, yes. It’s hard to believe the days of little ones in our house are so very long ago, and yet the joy and even the pain of watching your children grow… it’s something I am grateful to bear witness to. Still, much work lies ahead. Working for connection. Working to do what is needed. Wanting to find the pieces of this life to keep it whole. My memory keeping has changed over the years, but at its core it remains what it has always been, a celebration of life and record of memory. If time has shown me anything, it’s shown how the memories that matter do fade and dim a bit; that I don’t recall the minutiae of every day with any reliability. I still love stories. I still love photos. Above all, I love these people and need to do better by all of them every single day. That is the ultimate reminder and goal. Onward.
So there you have it. One year in the life.
It’s a good life indeed.
MY 2015 ALBUM PAGES:
January Pages
February Pages
March Pages
April Pages
May Pages
June Pages
July Pages
August Pages
September Pages
October Pages
WANT TO SEE MY 2014 BOOK? Click here to see the finished result.
Jenell says
Awesome! I love the simplistic aspect to your pages. I really need to consider doing Project Life your way – I certainly don’t seem to be keeping up the way I’m doing it. I have photos ready to be printed from October 2015 on. Can’t wait to see your finished book. Thanks for sharing . . . and thanks for your continued inspiration! And you can NEVER have too many selfies!
Cathy Zielske says
#nevertoomanyselfies lol!
Sue says
Cathy your final words really touched me. I often wonder why I continue to do this project and then I look back at mine (and yours) and realize that I really love it. I am so technically challenged but love the look of yours. You inspire me to continue! Thanks for sharing so much with us in order for us to keep our everyday and important memories to love and
share with others!
Sue says
Cathy,
Your final words really touched me. I often wonder why I continue to do these projects but then I look at yours and mine and fall in love with it all over again. While I am too technically challenged to complete a digital book, I love the look of yours! I just want to thank you for being so willing to share your talents and inspiration with us. I doubt anyone will regret saving and sharing not only our important events but everyday memories through pictures and words! Plus…what a fun community to belong to!
Cathy Zielske says
Aw, thanks Sue!
heidig says
Nice album – love the closing paragraph!
Kim Smith says
Love seeing your last few pages of the year. Congrats on being done!
Nicky H says
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Shauna says
Love your concluding paragraph…got a little teary eyed when I read it. Scrapbooking is a celebration of my life and those memories I want to remember. Thanks for sharing your world with us. Listened to your episode on the Live Inspired podcast…so refreshing and honest. It was a joy to listen to as I did my morning run. I was not familiar with that podcast and now I am hooked.
Cathy Zielske says
Well that’s pretty cool to hear, Shauna! Thanks, and enjoy your day!
Connie Harris says
Great post….love your pages!
Would love to take another digital or hybrid class from you in the future….any chance that something like that is coming soon?
Cathy Zielske says
Connie, yep. I have two ideas I’m working on presently. One is a hybrid workshop. The other is a brand new Design Your Life workshop. In progress! Much work to do before they are ready. 🙂
Caroline says
Same process this year?
Jeanne W says
Just beautiful! My girls are growing up too. It’s hard but I’m grateful. And I love telling the stories and seeing yours!
Christine K. says
I really love your Project Life style. Clean and uncluttered. I am really torn between doing digital (PSE) or the Project Life app. I made a layout using the app (and your value kit) but I am not sure if this is the way I want to go due to the lower resolution when printed.
I would really appreciate your opinion. Is there a big difference in quality when printing at a lower resolution (12 x 12 size) with the PL app when compared with PSE at 300 dpi?
Cathy Zielske says
Hey Christine,
It’s my understanding that the PL app saves out the 12 x 12s at 240 resolution. Apparently it is supposed to be okay for print but it sounds like that is not what you have experienced, correct?
Hmmm. That would not be okay for me, personally. I come from a print background and it’s always 300 resolution for optimum quality.
I would email Becky’s people and ask them what might have happened as it might have been a glitch in the app software.
🙂
julie says
Thanks so much for sharing Cathy. You are an inspiration. Thank your family too for agreeing to be so publicly ‘shared’! I’m so jealous that you started this journey while your family was young. Mine have long since flown the coop, and I’m wondering if I can do the ‘year in review’ retrospectively, operating on old photos and lingering memories, while documenting our changing life as we head toward the ‘golden years’?
I too love your clean layouts and 2015 summary!
Cathy Zielske says
Julie, you absolutely can! That’s the beauty of this. It can be anything you want.
I’m at a place now where it’s much harder to scrapbook in the usual way, so one of the things I’ll be doing in 2016 (not for Project life) is looking for older stories to tell and share.
There’s no reason you can’t use slots in PL for the same kind of thing. One current story, one older story. Why not? 🙂
Jenny B. says
Julie, you should check out Ali Edwards’ Story Kits. They look to be perfect for telling old and new stories together. 🙂
Michelle t says
Thank you. Wishing you health, success, and joy in this the new year. Michelle t
Jenny B. says
Cathy, I am using your minimal templates for 2016. As I’ve worked through my title page and the first week, I keep thinking to myself, “That Cathy Zielske is a genius!” 🙂 The little tips you give in the sample journaling, how you use the layer styles for the frames… I am just in awe of your Photoshop prowess. Your templates are a joy to work with. 🙂
kerrianne says
Cathy, I Love seeing your final pages and closing thoughts- your book is beautiful. I am just wrapping my 2015 book up and I used and adored your templates all this year and can’t wait to get my book printed. After 5 years of doing a 12×12 digital book, I am feeling restless and going to try 9×12. Have you ever printed a book from Adoramapix? Or know of any other company that prints books in 9×12 size? Congrats again on completing your book, and thanks for the inspiration!
Cathy Zielske says
I have only printed my Project life with AdoramaPix, but I have not done a 9 x 12. I’m not sure if they offer that size. In fact, do you know who does offer that size? I’m intrigued!
Mary says
Cathy your book is fantastic!!! Wow. I am buying your templates right now and I am going to do a 2016 digital Project Life also. You have totally inspired me. Thanks!!
Cathy Zielske says
Wow! Thanks, Mary! Enjoy! and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Olivia says
I love it!
Is your book 12 x 12? I assume so but then I saw the 10 x 10 option and wanted to make sure!
Cathy Zielske says
Yes!