PL2016 - August Camping Trip

So, in my Project Life catch up for 2016, I knew I wanted to include a camping trip we did with friends.

At the end of August, we went camping to Kananaskis with another family. 

Our boys played hockey together for 3 years, and our girls became rink rat besties. We became quite close. In fact, it was the summer before that my girlfriend invited the kids and I to camp with them for a few days. It was thanks to this friend, that I realized, I actually enjoyed camping. 

[I remember our drive out to meet them, that summer, when Madelyn told me "Mummy, you're going to love this so much, you'll wish we camped all the time" To myself I thought, poor sweet girl... You couldn't be further from the truth.  Imagine my surprise, when I realized how much I enjoyed myself.]

I suddenly thought, Gosh, we're missing out. It's what got me on the band wagon, and searching Kijiji for a trailer of our own.

So thanks to Lise, we now have our own little trailer. It's perfect. 

Any way, back to the camping trip. We went to Elkwood in Kananaskis. The original forecast wasn't great, but we ended up having great weather. I neglected to pack shorts, I'd packed for the arctic, so that's another reason we ended up having great weather. When we got there, they had ONLY lifted the ban and opened bike paths, due to the grizzly bear activity. There were signs warming of bears, everywhere. Having said that, this scared of bear girl, had seen bears on every camping trip so far... Why would this be any different? 

We jam packed much into our camping trip. We all brought bikes, and biked from our campground down to the Lower Lake of Kananaskis.  We rewarded ourselves with ice cream of course, at the Bolton Creek campground. 

We hiked up to Rawson Lake, which was definitely on my bucket lists of hikes. The view was worth the entire uphill trek. 

We also rented a canoe on the Lower Lakes and the kids all took turns [boys and then girls of course] paddling around the lake. 

The most comedic thing we saw, was a group of tourists, get in the canoe and then promptly over turn it. It all happened in slow motion, Barry and Lise went to the rescue. We still tell that story, and can make tears stream down our cheeks. Note to self, make sure you know a thing or two about a canoe, before heading into a freezing body of water. 

For this layout, I wanted to include as many photos as possible. So I did a collage type page. There is one small section left to journal in. I knew that the photos would bring back the majority of the memories. We had a great camping trip, and look forward to doing it again.

The following Sahlin Studio Product was used:

Photo Rounds Days

Flashback Kit

Flashback Journal Cards 

PL2017 - Week 1

Here is my layout for week 1:

Starting off 2017 strong. 

We celebrated the ringing in of 2017 with friends. There were many laughs, and much wine consumed... 

The first week of 2017 was busy, we started off with a ringette tourney in Red Deer. It was also the same weekend that Esso Minor Hockey week officially started. Mason and Barry had to stay home for hockey, so Red Deer ended up being a girls weekend. My Mum joined Madelyn and I. [There's no reason she shouldn't experience first hand what getting to an 8:00 am game looks like] We left the hotel at 6:55 am, to be at the rink for 7:15. Fun times...

The drive to Red Deer was awful, done mostly in the dark with extremely poor visibility.   The couple of days in Red Deer were awful. Lots of snow, and it was so very cold there. We ended up leaving Red Deer to come home mid-afternoon. It was so much better to be driving when you could actually see. 

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

Pure Happiness Elements

2017 Calendar Cards

Number Journal Cards

PL2017 - Title Page

I just went back and looked through my previous Project Life Albums. I started documenting project life, the same year I got my iPhone, it was 2013.

I still remember the MAIN reason for wanting an iPhone, was so I could have instagram. It was the very first app I downloaded. I've never looked back. I LOVE it still. In the past 5 years, I've posted over 2100+ photos. In the beginning, I used filters and frames. Too funny.  Now I just post the photo. If there's any editing to do, it's usually done in either PicTapGo or Snapseed. Two other apps I love. 

I love pictures. I always have.

I haven't yet decided exactly how I'm going to document project life this year. The weekly format, as I have in the past. Or a specific story that happened during a specific week. But I do know this, I'm going to keep on with it. I love it. My kids still love to sit and look through the albums. So I don't do it just for me. I do it for all of us. 

Here is the title page for 2017.

I'm looking forward to yet another year of our 'every day'. 

Thanks for joining us on this journey. 

The following Sahlin Studio products used: 

Drift Away Elements

Drift Away Papers 

January Template of the Month

Oh my goodness, it looks as though I forgot to post this! Eeks! For some reason this post was sitting in my drafts.

Better late than never!

Here is a layout using Sahlin Studio template freebie. This template is available to download for free, for the month of January only. Go and check it out here before it's gone!

I altered the layout slightly. Added a few more embellishments. Sometimes I like to use the template just as it is, and sometimes I just need something more. 

These photos were taken this past summer. We went camping with friends and hiked up to Rawson Lake in Kananaskis. The hike was listed as moderate. The first kilometre or so, was fairly flat. The remainder of the hike was pretty much an uphill steep climb.  As mentioned in my journaling, I have seen this place posted time and time again on Instagram, and I was was eager to see it for myself. We were rewarded indeed, with a spectacular view. We lucked out with the weather too.

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

Shine Bright - Kit
Shine Bright - Journal Cards

PL2016 - July

Because of our computer kafuffle, my last project life layout was at the end of June.

This summer, I worked on a number of things, but didn't send them to be printed. They're are a number of layouts I worked on, in the wee hours of the night, that I don't know whether I'll ever get or not. Grrrr... 

Now that we're officially into 2017 [Happy New Year!] it seems daunting to 'catch  up' on 6 months worth of project life pages. 

At first I thought I might just forget it, and call 2016 a wrap. Just start with the new year. But the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was, that I couldn't just let it go. 

There were some things that happened, that I didn't want to forget. But I don't exactly have to document everything.  So I created a 2 page spread, for the month of July. 

I may just do this through to December. 

I know I'll continue on with project life. I love it too much not to. But I'm not exactly sure what format I'll use. 

I don't print very many scrapbook pages any more. It's just too expensive. I think I'll plan on documenting more the same pocket style that I do for project life. Perhaps some months will have more detail and some months less. I'm still not sure how I'll approach it.

Any way, here are my pages for July.

 

Sahlin Studio Product Used: 

All About This Digital Stamps