December Daily: Day One

December Daily is my favorite Ali Edwards project. It's a fascinating process of observing and recording the stories (simple and fantastic) that make the Christmas season so special. For more information about December Daily or Ali Edwards, please visit her website.

Hey Friends,

Here's a quick look at the very beginning of my December Daily. I'm not quite up to date with all my pages. For some, I'm waiting on pictures from my printer and others are just notes and ideas.

My plan going forward is to my post pages (in order) as I get them done.  I'd love to do this everyday from now until the end of December but if I'm going to be honest, that's a tall order.  I'll do my best and we'll see how it goes.

Here's the cover/title page. I love that little twine wreath. I made it myself. (So proud) I've got a little tutorial in the works to share how I made it.



And here's December 1.  Advent calendars are my favorite way to start my December Daily.



This is the format for my December Daily so far - journaling on the left and photos on the right.  I usually write the journaling and then stamp that little dot border.  My journaling blocks get more symmetrical as the month goes on - practice makes perfect and all that! I could have printed journaling blocks but decided to go with the homemade/art journal look that comes with hand stamping.

I adhered the photos directly on the envelope/page and trimmed any excess. There was a little white bit of the envelope showing so I covered it with a bit of washi. Is there any crafty problem washi can't solve? I think not!

So, that's December 1. I promise to post more December Daily updates soon. If you follow me on Twitter (@cathiereed), you'll be the first to know when I do.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie


ps: Here is the link to my post about the foundation pages for my album.

Week in the Life: done at last

note: this is a long post so you might want to get a fresh cup of coffee before reading on.

Hey, hey!

Today I'm sharing my Week in the Life album.  It is done.  I am happy, proud and relieved.  Even though I didn't have any idea how my project would look when done, I've never finished a project so quickly. Perhaps my ideas about how things should look is slowing me down in other areas...hmmm.....

So, what was different this time? Well, I knew that I didn't want a 12 x12 album.  I certainly could have filled one up but I find that the 12 x12 albums are so big that people aren't as inclined to pick them up and thumb through them - especially my kids.  So, I went with the We R Memory Keepers 5.5 x 7.5 album.



Here's the side view. You can see that there was plenty of room for this project.



Here's Monday...



The "hello" is from this Cosmo Cricket washi tape. The roll has a vintage hand which I cut off and put in my art journal. The stamp is from the Studio Calico Weekdays set I borrowed from my friend Sara. Thanks, Sara!  I loved it so much I decided to start each day the same way.



I was recovering from a tummy bug on Monday and didn't take many pictures.  I took what I had and grouped them together to give an overview of our home life.



I used the Lawn Fawn Harold's ABCs alphabet set for the "little artist".  I used this throughout the book too.  The wire whale is a project Gabriel brought home from preschool.




Here's Tuesday...














Here's Wednesday...




This is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you have identical clothes for your kids. Gabriel and I ran out the door for an appointment and grabbed Ben's fleece by mistake. We didn't notice until it was too late but I had to take this picture when we got home. Too funny.







This a little note that I put in Gabriel's snack bag on preschool days.  Some days I pick a joke and other days it's a love note.  It's a great way to use up wallet pics and scrap papers.

Here's Thursday...(are you still with me?)









Here's Friday...







I had some extra pictures I wanted to add to Friday so I used a page protector from the Lickety Slippers 8x8 assorted pack. 





Here's Saturday...

And finally, here's Sunday...







More Lickety Slippers.



And that, my friends, is that!

If made to the end of  this post, thank you so much.

I also want to say "thanks" to Ali Edwards. Not just because she conceptualized this project and leads us through it each year but for her daily worksheets.  They saved my bacon this year, so to speak, because I had somewhere to put my notes during the week.  When it came time to put my album together I just punched holes in the pages and added them to the album.  So simple yet so perfect.

Another Week in our (Crazy) Lives is done and dusted.  Next year, Gabriel will be in Kindergarten and our lives will be so different so I'm really glad that I took the time to do WITL this year.

Thanks for stopping by!

zove

Cathie

a Sunday in the Life

note: This week I'm blogging about Week In the Life.  It's one of my favorite memory keeping projects.  If you want to learn more about it you can find out all you need to get started at www.aliedwards.com. Ali Edwards is the creative mind behind the whole thing.


...and then there was Sunday. The day started with snow. *sigh* Oh Spring, please stop messing with me.

Then it was off to The Paperie for Sara's Yearlong Album class.  We meet the last Sunday of every month to create an album that captures the highlights of 2012. Yesterday, we made a page for May and 2 cards. It was great fun.

Here's my page in progress...

After class, we all went to a bowling party.  While Gabriel was bowling...

Ben was climbing, climbing, climbing the stairs.  Practice makes perfect, you know!

Then we made a quick run to Costco before heading to a friend's for dinner.

Then back home to rush the kids into bed and finally put my feet up.  We finished the taxes then a little tv before bed.

Now it's on to album construction.  I'm not much of a digi- scrapper so my WITL will be traditional paper scrapping. I'm printing pics as 4x6 and wallets with a few 5x7 for really special pics. Because I'm using a small album (We R Memory Keepers 5.5 x 8.5), I plan to journal right on my photos using my vintage typewriter and American Crafts Slick Writer. I didn't keep much "stuff" this year. I'm ok with that.  I have some plastic page protectors - the Lickety Slippers 8x8 assorted pack - for any bibs and bobs.

So, that's my plan but it's not carved in stone.  I often go with the creative flow especially when what I have in mind isn't working.  I'll post more about my album and process when I  get started.

Well, Week in the Life might be over for another year but real life goes on. Time to get back to it.


Thanks for stopping by

zove

Cathie

a Saturday in the Life

note: This week I'm blogging about Week In the Life.  It's one of my favorite memory keeping projects.  If you want to learn more about it you can find out all you need to get started at www.aliedwards.com. Ali Edwards is the creative mind behind the whole thing.


Ok, it is Sunday night and this year's Week in the Life is winding down. This week turned out to be pretty unconventional for us but that's ok. Although I might call my album "A Crazy Week in the Life", this year. Yeah, that sounds about right.

On Saturday, there was lots of play...

 ...inside...

...and outside.  It's still pretty cold here but we had fun.

There was silliness and laughter...

and my good old girl.  Man, I love that dog.

I've started the process of editing, post-processing and printing pictures because I've finally settled on an album.  I'm using the We R Memory Keepers, 5.5 x 8.5 album in red. I picked it for 2 reasons. First, because of its smaller size - 12 x 12 is too big for me for this project.  Second, I love We R Memory Keeper's albums. They are so sturdy and the red leather cover is to die for.  I'm going to use papers from my stash and some plastic page protectors but not all the way through.  We'll see.  I'm not worried about people touching things.  And if anything falls out over time, I'll just glue it back in.

And that was Saturday.  Thanks for stopping by!

zove

Cathie

a Friday in the Life

note: This week I'm blogging about Week In the Life.  It's one of my favorite memory keeping projects.  If you want to learn more about it you can find out all you need to get started at www.aliedwards.com. Ali Edwards is the creative mind behind the whole thing.


Today is going to be a busy day so I'm going to jump right into Friday's pics.

My morning coffee has never looked so glorious.

Sam reading a quick story to the boys before he heads to the office for the day.  Sometimes the kids really don't want him to go to work.  I imagine that's pretty typical of most families. Lucky for us, his office is pretty flexible.























It was sunny and warm - a beautiful spring day!

We had some fresh bread courtesy of Sam and the breadmaker.

My daily pic of Mac.

Gabriel went to preschool for the afternoon and Ben and I went outside to enjoy the weather.

We played in the backyard and out front.  Here are Ben's treasures.

When Gabriel came home from school, we went out again but it was so cold. We had to come back in and get hats and mittens. Then it was time for BBQ supper and then bed for the boys.

With only 2 days left of this year's Week In the Life, it's time to assess and see what's missing.  I don't have any pics of the bedtime routine and general "stuff" pictures. Ali suggested thinking about what you wish you had pictures of from your childhood and I think that's a great idea.

I'm also going to give Gabriel the camera again today and tomorrow and see what he comes up with. I'll even give it to Sam. He loves to take pics of the kids.  This project is 98% my perspective but any story is richer when the voices of other characters are heard.  I highly recommend sharing the camera among your family this weekend.  If you have older kids with smartphones - maybe you could steal a few of their pics for your WITL. Even one or two pictures might show you a story you would have otherwise missed.

Thanks for stopping by!

zove 

Cathie