A Week in the Life/December Daily 2011

Ok, so maybe I'm insane for trying this, but as I mentioned in my last post, I've been feeling super creative lately (my 'mojo' is back), and I just want to do all sorts of crafty things, so I decided to attempt another A Week in the Life in December, since I enjoyed it so much last year and want to continue doing it.

A couple of reasons I think doing it now is a good time to document our lives:

-It'll be 18 months since I did my last one (I did it in June 2010), and to say the least, A LOT has changed since then!

-It's our first Christmas in the new house, which is a big deal.  Also, it'll give me a chance to document the Christmas-ey things in our lives without having to commit myself to an entire month, like in December Daily (which I totally failed at doing back in 2009).

-Violet will be about the same age as Victor was when I did it the first time (he was a little over 3 months, she'll be a little under 3 months).

-It'll be the beginning of winter, which corresponds well with my wanting to do a Week in each season (I did the beginning of summer last time).

-Work will be slowing down so hopefully I'll have more time to focus on taking photos at home and blogging personally (something I've been terrible at lately).

-I miss scrapbooking!

***

 So, this is my plan (you can read about my preparation for it the first time around here):

-I will be using the same binder as I did last time (the American Crafts D-ring album). I like the 8.5X11 format, it's less space to fill. The cover 'matches' the papers I used in the first Week I did, but that's ok, I'd rather have all my Weeks in the same album than an album for each Week (there's still tons of room in the one I  have now).

-I'll also be doing basically the same format as I did for my first week, since it worked well and should go even smoother this time since I know what I'll be doing.  Here is the basic layout:

So an intro page to the Week with a 5X7 photo (or larger, we'll see), then a Daily Opener page with another 5X7 photo. Then the Divided Page Protectors (I really liked these last time), filled with photos and journaling cards and maybe ephemera of some sort. Then a Long Journaling Card (front and back), and finally a closing page with a collage of photos from the day.

The only thing I think I may do differently is to have a big photo next to the long journaling card (meaning the page protector would be 8.5X11 instead of a cut down 6X11, and I would sew it down the middle instead). On one sewn side would be the 4.5X11 card, and on the other, a 4X11 photo (or more realistically, 2-4X5.5 photos). Just a chance to include more large photos I guess.  I'm also not 100% sure about the photo collage at the end, I think I will wait to see how many photos I have and will decide at that point.

As for the Divided Page Protectors, I have several journaling cards I want to include, so I may not end up with many photos in them at all, which is fine. Some of the cards include:

-Violet's eating and sleeping schedule (I had these with Victor and think it would be fun to compare)
-The weather (because I'm a nerd an am interested in those kinds of things)
-What we watched on TV (might not include everyday)
-What we ate (might not include everyday...only the days I actually cook!)
-My Tweets and Facebook Status for the day

I also want to reserve several spots for Instagram photos (which will be mounted on special 'Instagram photo cards' with room for a caption at the bottom), since in all likelihood I'll be using my phone to take some of the pictures, especially when we are out of the house.  I also want to include my to-do list (I had it on my long journaling card last time but I might move it elsewhere), as well as special spot to record any Christmas activities we do. And, like last time, I will include a self portrait with my outfit for the day.  I want to keep the format somewhat consistent throughout all the Weeks I do, so apart from a few minor changes here and there, the 'bones' will be the same.

-As far as patterned papers and card stock, I'm still deciding what I want to use. Again, in order to stay consistent I think I will choose a Basic Grey line. I was thinking of using some of their old Christmas papers (if I can find them!), since they don't necessarily scream Christmas, but will obviously go well with any Christmas photos I include.  I will use white card stock as my base for the intro, daily opener, and collage pages, but will choose a coordinating card stock colour for the small and long journaling cards. I won't be using any embellishments, same as last time, since I'm fine with the 'clean' look.

-I will be documenting everything on my blog again, since it worked so well last time (I was able to just grab the text and print it out for my long journaling card). It will probably be harder this time to jot down random thoughts and observations in my book like I did last time though, so I'll be using my phone to write notes (or even voice recordings) to help me document what I want.

-One thing I want to try and do this year though is to have the album 'bones' built before I start the week. This includes having all the small journaling cards created in Photoshop and ready to go (I won't print them until after though since I don't want to include any of my handwriting this time), and having my intro page and daily opener pages built with the patterned paper, that way I can just stick on the photo when I'm ready. This is kind of the same approach as the December Daily, and will hopefully help me stay motivated to finish quickly after the documentation process is done.

Well, I think that's everything. I'm excited and nervous about it, I worry that my life is too busy already to be adding something like this onto my plate. But it's exactly that, documenting us and the busyness of our days at this point in our lives, that I feel the need to do for some reason...I know it will be worth all the effort.

So, this is my official statement: December 11th to December 17th, I will be document the lives of the Flynn family of four.  Wish me luck!

G.

I actually did something I saw on Pinterest...

Source: andreasteed.com

And my version:

An 18X24 poster printed at Staples for 15$, put in an old Ikea frame I've had forever.

Not bad.

Working on more projects (too many actually, I'm feeling super creative lately! Just wish I had the time and energy to match my ideas...)

Be back to share more (I'm planning to do another A Week in the Life project next month, so I'll be back to share my plan of attack for that huge project).

Have you created anything lately?

G.

Violet's first month (in Instagrams)

(Oh yes, she is most definitely a second child.  While I have taken a few 'real' photos of her with my camera, there are faaar fewer than I took of Victor. Things are so much different now, so much busier, that snapping quick iPhone photos is all I have time and energy for most days.  I did get out and do an outdoor newborn session with her a few weekends ago, and I keep meaning to do an indoor session too, but she's now past the newborn stage so I'm not sure if it'll happen or if I'll just wait until her 3 month session. I just keep telling myself that any form of documentation is better than none, so even if it's just iPhone pics, it's still something.)

Well, here we are, time is flying and little Miss Violet is 4 weeks old already. Since I don't have a baby book for her (I'm looking to get the 'girl' version of the one Victor has but I can't find it in town), I better blog what I can remember now so that I can put it in later, or else I will forget for good, I know it.

So here we go, in random point thought form, the only way I can write these days:

*One thing for sure about Miss Violet is that she's going to be bigger than her brother was. When we took her for her doctor's appointment she weighed 8lbs 10oz, and I'm sure she must weight more now since that was over a week ago.  She was 8lbs 5 oz at birth, so quite a bit bigger than Victor, and longer too (21.5 inches versus 20).  Not sure if that will carry on throughout their lives, we'll see I guess.

*She's a great eater (although messy, like Victor was), and even though I'm using a nipple shield again, it's going well.  I don't love breastfeeding anymore this time than I did with Victor (which means I don't like it at all, haha), but I'm still determined to do it as long as possible because honestly, we can't afford for me not to!  She's eating about every 3 hours during the day but will go longer at night, usually 4-5 hours, which is nice.

*Speaking of nights and sleeping, that's one area I'd like to try to fix a bit. She's great during the day, sleeps for long stretches with a few awake times in between, but it's her 'witching hour' that I have an issue with, because it usually falls right around when I want to go to sleep and hit my limit of tolerance (from around 10:30-11:00 to 12:30-1:00am). And because Dan is working this time around (he was unemployed for 6 months when Victor was born) it means that I can't rely on him to stay up with her like he used to do with him. Also, I can't sleep in because Victor has been getting up earlier and earlier these days, so all around I'd say I'm more tired than I was when Victor was a newborn, but of course I knew that would be the case.  Anyway, Violet usually goes down between 10:00-1:00, and then wakes up for the day at around 8:30am or so.

*She's into looking at things when she can, but most the time just snoozes and sleeps.  She likes to be held but is definitely ok with being put down on the couch, which is nice because her brother still requires quite a bit of attention! She doesn't cry much, and I try to respond to her as soon as I can so that we can keep her calm for the most part (Victor was never much of a crier either, I've been lucky with my babies.)

*Speaking of her brother, for the most part he wants nothing to do with her and still gets a bit jealous if he sees me holding her when he wants me to do something with/for him. He won't go near her and refuses to touch her.  He has occasionally pointed at her and said "baba" (bébé/baby"), so at least he understands what she is, but he's still too young to really 'get it'. I think he knows she's here to stay though, so we'll see what happens as they both get older.

*I'm not sure if it's because this is my second baby or if it's because it's Violet in particular, but I find that she's quite amusing, and I find myself smiling and laughing with her more than I did with Victor. It's probably because I'm less nervous/worried than I was the first time around, so now I'm more observant of just how pleasant a newborn can be. Her little faces and expressions are so cute (she has really deep set eyes so her brow furrows out quite a bit, resulting in grimaces and little funny frowns), and everything she does is just funny to me.

*She looks very different than her brother (I know I keep comparing them and that I should stop, hopefully I will when it starts to matter!) She has blue-ish grey eyes that aren't as big, and almost no hair (except for a little bit in the back), no eyelashes, and a bit of millia on her chin. I'm not saying that she isn't cute, it's just that Victor was so 'pretty' when he was young, that her look is totally apart from that.  We have no idea who she looks like (she sometimes looks to have Dan's mouth, but it's hard to tell), and a different temperament too.  I'm very curious to see who this little lady will become in the next year and beyond.

Well that's it I suppose, considering I started this post 3 weeks ago (she's actually 7 weeks old now) I better just write what I can and call it a day!  I want to try and update every month like I did with Victor, so hopefully I'll be back in a couple of weeks to write about Weeks 4-8 (she smiles now!), but I'm learning not to promise anything because it's rare that I can meet a deadline or goal these days.  That's just life with two little ones I guess!

I miss blogging, but it's just a phase in my life where there's not much room for it...but that will change in time too.

Be back, not sure when, don't wait up,
G.