I've found that big memory keeping projects go through several stages.
1) The honeymoon | You've come up with the project, you're excited to get going. You're full of ideas. This is going to be THE BEST PROJECT EVER.
2) Disenchantment | You've started pulling product together and sorting photos and suddenly the whole project looks really. really. REALLY daunting. You wonder why you thought this was a good idea and become really good at procrastination.
3) The soldier through phase | You give yourself a stern look and a kick in the pants and make yourself sit down and get some work done.
4) The tipping point | You get just enough of the project put together that you're really excited about what it's going to be when it gets done. The spark is relit, you're back to the honeymoon phase and can't wait to do more.
5) Repeat until finished | Depending on just how big the project is and how motivated you are to finish it up, you may go through stages 1-4 many times. The finished project will be good enough to put you back into the honeymoon phase just as soon as you think of a new big project.
After spending waaaaaaaaaaay too long in the "disenchantment" phase, the realization that we are heading back to Florida in just over 3 months kicked me firmly into "soldier through" gear. I've been digging through my photos since this post two weeks ago, and finally came up with a plan for the album. I've got one days worth of photos printed and into the book, and while nothing is "finished" other than this little number 4 insert, I can't wait to keep going. I'll be sharing my plan (and a tutorial for my album cover) soon - just need to get it all written out. I'm excited about how it's coming together and can't wait to share more.
