week in the life?

It is finished!  Yippee!  I just love this project that Ali Edwards dreamed up so many years ago.  This is a big project, no doubt about it.  Well, I guess its as big a project as you make it.  My problem?  I didn't take enough pics.  The more pictures you take the easier it is to put together.

Lets go throught this shall we?  I started mine on a Wednesday.  That was fine.  It really doesn't matter what day you start.  For me the important thing was just starting.

I used a regular ol' 8 1/2" x 11" binder.  I know I'll end up doing this project again at some point and I can just add more weeks in here until its full. 

Current stamps:  Woodgrain background, I {heart} Hearts  Retired stamps: Schoolbook Serif alpha, Well Worn Alpha, Classic numbers, Wonderful Favorites, Headline numbers.  Early espresso, crumb cake and baja breeze ink.  Crumb cake, whisper white and early espresso cardstock.  Small heart punch, Scallop rectangle clearlits die, big shot, early espresso satin ribbon, 1.25" circle punch, basic black journaler, Neutrals Patterned DSP, Nuetrals buttons, linen thread, and dimensionals.


Here is the title page.  I cut an 8.5 x 11 piece of crumb cake in half to 4.25 x 11 and then used the sewing machine to stitch the page protector to the size I wanted. 

I used the computer to type out the title. 

On the back of the title page I just wrote a little about each of us and what was going on with us right now. 

I started out my journaling with a half page of notebook paper.  I like having the lines so I write straight. 

I used a baseball page protector that has 9 slots for my pics.  Which means 18 pics for each day.  Yeah, I didn't do so well with that.  I think I averaged 7 pics a day.  That meant I needed to fill the empty slots.  You can see on this page I included the grocery store receipt. 

Another 1/2 page journaler.

On Friday I gave up on the 1/2 page journalers and just went for it.  I still managed to fill up both sides with chit chat.





You can see my days' title is not very straight.  I was okay with this.  Its not perfect, just like me.

I found that I took quite a few pics of the tv.  I thought it would be an interesting reminder of what we are into tv-wise.  I may do a scrap page on just tv shows.  I know, that sounds kind of dumb but I have an idea............

I found the easiest way to fill empty slots was to just write about what was in the pics.

Okay, so Tuesday was the last day for me.  It was also a mentally busy day.  So busy in fact that I never once took out my camera.  I didn't remember about it until after 4:00 that day.  So I decided that it would just be a journaling day.  I'm fine with that. 

Yes, I wish I had a pic of my Bible study group and a pic of The Boy golfing, of 17's friend that came over and the oven that decided to blow its igniter when I was trying to cook dinner, of Grace reading out loud to me, but thats okay.  I did write about it all.  And maybe thats more important.  In fact I filled 1 1/2 pages of journaling that day.

Anyhow, its all done and I love it.  What would I keep/change for next time? 

• I liked the notebook paper.  I liked having lines and it was easy to just keep out. 
• I would really pay more attention to taking pictures.  So many things we see everyday but don't really see.  You know?  Laundry, the inside of your car, your desk, your kitchen/living room/ dining room/ bedroom etc.  I brought home from my dad's, a picture of our living room from the house I grew up in, and it was so fun to look at and remember. 
• I don't think I'll fuss with the 1/2 page protectors next time.
•  
• I liked keeping it to just a few colors.  This one was Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Baja Breeze.  Made it flow.
• I really like the look of the baseball card protectors. 
• I didn't like cutting all the pics for the baseball protector pages.
• I think next time I'll worry about taking pics and writing the journaling each day.  Then worry about getting it all together the next week.  Trying to do it all at the same time was a little hard. 
•  
• Next time I need to get more pics of me in there. 

Alrighty, thats all I can think of for now.  I hope you were/are inspired to do this for yourself.  Like the December Daily I think it will be a treasure in the years to come.  Let me know if I you have any questions.  You can look here too at Ali Edwards page for great ideas. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

Week in the Life - days 3,4,5

Hellooooooooo.  Goodness!  Can you believe its already August?  wow..............

Of course I had good intentions of getting every single day of Week in the Life on here every single day.  Yeah.......well......its good to have good intentions. 

Anyway, here are the last 3 days.  Tomorrow is the last day for me.  Not all of the these pages are totally complete.  I plan on going through them more completely when I'm all done.  And I'll get them in a book.  I tried taking the pics in a different location to lose some of the glare.  But I'll just have to do them all again in the daylight when I'm done.

So for right now, here you go:

I started out with a whole piece of paper this time and I filled the whole thing.  Not that I had anything really interesting to say.  But it did make it easier to put it in a page protector.

My biggest problem is taking enough pics.  Usint the baseball card thing means having space for 18 pics.  I have only been averaging 6-9 pics.  Makes it alot harder to put it all together.  But only because I'm trying to fill both the front and the back.  See those blank spaces?  For right now I just put some Neutrals patterned DSP there.  I'll go back and add a story of something.

Again, I did a full page of journaling.

I really love this project.  Even though this wasn't a fantastically exciting week, we did have a few important things happen.  The Boy bought his first car, 17 got her own debit card, Grace learned to sew.......

I hope you're inspired to try your own Week in the Life (WIL).  Or just a Day in the Life.  Even the most mundane day will be a special recording 1, 5, 10 years from now. 

Alrighty then.  17 is getting on me because I'm late to watch the finale of the Bachelorette.  I really like both guys so either way I think she'll make a good choice.  And I really like Ashley too, the bachelorette, although she sometimes dresses like a hussy. 

Thanks so much for coming by and keeping me company.

Blessings, b.

week in the life - day 2

Hey!  Another day gone already.  I wanted to show you yesterday's Week in the Life page.  Again, really bad pics.  I need to take them in the daytime so I don't have glare.  Only I don't have them finished in the daytime.  Hmmm...........

When I'm done I'll take better pics of the whole thing. 

I did another 1/2 page journal page.  The sewing worked wonderful this time, thanks Connie.  She suggested I sandwhich the plastic between 2 pieces of paper.  Worked like a charm!  See, stampers are so nice. 

I have found out that I take alot of pics in the landscape postition.  That means I have to crop them to print out portrait so they are facing the right way in my little card page protector thing.  Its been really easy to do.  So I think for this project I'll just keep doing that.  I may change something for the New Mexico project.

I've been giving (or maybe she's been taking) the camera to Grace.  Alot of these pics are hers.  Its been interesting to see what she thinks is important. 

Alrighty then.  I've been really good with my journaling today.  I made sure to keep it out where I see it all the time.  Getting this page together tonight was really easy.  You should try it.  You should. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Thanks to those of you who have bought some retired stamps.  I appreciate it. 

Blessings, b.

week in the life project

Hey there!  I just wanted to post my Week in the Life project real quick tonight to show you what I'm talking about and how I'm doing it this time around.  And hopefully to inspire you to do your own.  Look here on Ali's website to help you out. 

Warning:  its way past my bedtime and these pics are not the greatest.  I will be taking better pics when I'm done and we can go through it more together. 

I'm experimenting with some homemade 1/2 page page protectors.  I cut a piece of cardstock in half and then used the sewing machine ( thats a whole other story there) to stitch it.  Then cut off the excess.  My sewing machine didn't really like the plastic. 

I made a cover page.  I opened a word document and typed out the title and dates. 

On the back of the title page I wrote a little about each of us and what we are about right now. 

The next page starts the daily journaling.  I just used a 1/2 sheet of notebook paper.  I like lines.  Now some of you may be put off by writing alot.  Really, you can make this as detailed or not as you want.  If you don't like to journal a bunch, then don't.  No one will tell on you, promise.

The picture pages are just some baseball card page protectors.  Just print your pictures wallet size.  Made things really easy and quick. 

I didn't take enough pics to fill all the slots.  I kinda forgot about it during the day.  So to fill up the empty ones I just put some DSP in there.  Right now I've left them blank but I'll probably stamp something on them later. 

Okay there ya go.  I took longer making the cover page than I did the pictures.  Do your journaling during the day so you dont' forget.  Then its super easy to put it in the protector, print out your pics and you're done!  Easy way to document some memories.  I'll be doing the same sort of thing for the trip we just took to New Mexico. 

Alrighty then, time this ol' broad got in bed.   Thank so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.