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!

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 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.