I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon a little late here (I will once again use my "new mom who was living out in the woods with no Internet" card), but I've decided to try the "A Week in the Life" project from the lovely Ali Edwards.

Now, I know that I'm not so great with finishing projects, especially minis (see December Daily, see 52Qs, see Bits of Life, see 5 Amazing Years of Loving You, see Project 365, and so on), but I figured, what the heck, might as well add to the unfinished pile, lol.

(side: is anyone else like this with their crafts too?  Tons of half-finished projects lying about?  I hope so!)

Anyway, back to the project.  I read most of Ali's posts about the project earlier today and it sounds totally appealing to me, mostly because I really want to capture and document our life right now, with Victor leaving the newborn phase and becoming a young infant (3 months), and with us having just moved back home.  It's an important time in our lives, I feel like it's the "beginning" of a new stage, so getting it all down on paper with words and photos seems like something I want (and, in a way, should) do.

I think I'm going to start not this week but next (starting Sunday, May 30), which means I'll have this week to prepare and get my supplies together.  Since I want to make this as easy as possible for me, I'm going to do as much in advance as I can, like build the album, print off any necessary journaling cards/whatever, choose my paper/embellishments, and have all the things I know I want to document listed out.  Ali suggested using different themes and elements of the day to fill in your journaling, and I really like that idea, especially if it's mostly "fill in the blank" type stuff.

Here are a few of the things I'm going to document (either through words or pics):

-To-do list: I'll probably make one at the beginning of the week and then break it up to a few tasks per day.  I can then check off what I actually did and didn't do

-The weather: Because I'm obsessed with the weather, like all good Canadians

-My outfit for the day: Just to get a laugh, and probably to encourage me to actually get dressed!  I might also do Victor's outfit(s) for the day too, to see the little clothes that he's wearing now (and will soon grow out of)

-Victor's eating and sleeping schedule: This will be really hard to do, but I think that it would be really neat to look back on, plus I'm curious to see myself!

-What we watch: Right now we're on Season 4 of Dexter

-What Internet sites we visit: This is always fun to look back on, especially when the sites no longer exist (à la Kristina Contes)

-Our menu for the week: Pretty basic, but if we try a new recipe I might include it

-Daily tasks/routines: Either chores or errands-most likely part of the to-do list

-Who we see: Pics of my parents, the dogs, my sister, etc

-What Victor is currently doing and into: This week it's eating his hands, for example

-Items from our daily lives: The 'stuff' that we use everyday

-Random thoughts: As an add on to this I might ask Dan a question per day and get him to answer it

There are probably others but that's what I'm thinking of right now.  I might not do all of these either, I'm going to try and be flexible with the project too, because if it gets too restricting, I won't finish it.  I will use this blog as a sort of 'catch all' during the week, maybe putting up photos, bullet points of journaling, whatever I can daily in order to keep me accountable.  This is what I will use as the base of my album.

As for the the finished album itself, I'm still not 100% decided on what I should do.  I think that in order to keep it simple (again), I should stick to the basics when it comes to the creative/aesthetic look of the album, otherwise it'll never get done (again, see projects above).  Like Ali always says, the important part is the photos+words, so that'll be my main goal as well.  I'm also really into clean, simple lines these days, without a ton of clutter (see my Pregnancy Photobook), so I think that I'll carry that over into this project.  I'm also getting more and more into Photoshop and using it for things other than photo editing (like my blog banner above), so I may try to create photo collages/journaling + photo pages, ect.  Ali's templates will be my inspiration, but I don't know if I'll follow them exactly. 

I like the idea of an 8.5X11 album, but I'm also debating whether to go down to an 8X8 (a size I haven't used yet).  A smaller size means less to fill, but if I need to add extra pages I can.  Page protectors are definitely the way I'll be going, so something like this AC modern D-ring album might work.  The other thing I'm not sure about is whether I'll use baseball card page protectors or not.  I like the idea, but at the same time if I can't find any locally or that would fit into an 8X8 album, I might just do regular pages, but have the layout of one of the page match the look of being in those page protectors (a grid of photos, journaling cards, etc)  At this point I'm still not sure, it'll also depend on what I can get my hands on this week, since I want the album to be mostly built before I begin.

Now, I'm going to up front with the obstacles I see in this project, because I can already think of a few that might get in the way of me actually going through with it, but I figure if I write them out now, I can be aware of them during the week and try to overcome them.

My camera: Don't get my wrong, I love my 50D, it's a really nice camera...but maybe it's too nice.  It's quite big and heavy and bulky, which makes it hard to just pick up and use all the time, especially when we go out.  I'm shy enough as it is taking photos in public (something I REALLY need to get over), so having a monster camera to do it with doesn't make it any easier.  Having a smaller point and shoot would probably work better for this project, so I might look into getting one this week too (I talked about getting one earlier this year, I just never got around to it.)  Also, when I sold my Rebel XT I sold the 18-55mm lens that came with it, so now all I have is my 50mm prime, which is great for outdoors and close ups, but not so great if I want to take pictures of an entire room or anything like that.  I may have to borrow my mom or sister's camera, we'll have to see.

The monotony of our days: I know that we're supposed to embrace the small things, the seemingly unimportant things of our lives, but I think that I may struggle with capturing these things a bit, especially since our days are so similar and 'boring' (maybe to counteract this I should plan some activities for the week to make it seem less mundane).

Journaling: I suck at it, enough said.  This is where the "fill in the blank" type journaling prompts/cards will really help me.

Ok, well I've blathered on about this waaay more than I intended to.  Point is, I'm going to try it, I'm excited, and I really hope that it doesn't become another one of Geneviève's unfinished minis (which, by the way, I totally intend on finishing at some point....maybe...we'll see.)

Hopefully I'll report back this week with the preparations for the project.

Has anyone done this project? Please link me up if you can, I'd love to have some inspiration!

Until next time,

G.