Project 365

I've been meaning to post about this project for the last couple weeks, and am so glad I finally made the time to write about it. This is another project that I've looked at over the last couple years, but haven't participated in until now. It's a little more time intensive than the "one little word" project, but again is something that can be modified to fit the amount of time and energy you want to put into it.

The basic idea behind Project 365 is to take a picture a day. The scrapbooking community has taken it one step farther, making it more into a project of documenting your life for one year - including taking pictures and journaling daily and putting it all together in an album. I decided to take this on this year because I think it will be so cool to be able to look back on this year and see what our lives were like pre- and post-baby, to have a record of all the changes in our daily lives as we move from a family of 2 to a family of 3.

But I also don't want this project to be stressful, and I know we're going to be very, very busy once Baby is here, so I'm trying to be more realistic about what I think I can actually accomplish with this project and am modifying it to work with the amount of time and effort I can put into it. For instance, I knew from the start that I'd never remember to take a picture every day, so I'm just trying to keep the project in mind and take pictures as often as I remember. The rest of the days I'll fill in with other bits and pieces from our life, such as receipts, ticket stubs, etc. Another option is to take pictures of things around your house, yard, community, etc. to use for those days you forgot to take a picture. Again, the overall point of the project is to document what a year in your life is like, not necessarily to track every activity and event. I'm keeping my journaling super simple, and am just trying to track significant daily activities in my planner; I don't remember to do that every day either, but I am trying to write things down at least every few days so that I don't forget the important stuff. And just to keep things as stress-free as possible, I decided up front that I'm just going to take things as they come, and if I miss days here or there, or even several days in a row, that's OK.

Along with keeping the documentation process as easy as possible, I also want to keep the scrapbooking piece of it stress-free, so am making it simple and quick. I've decided to use the same format that Creating Keepsakes featured in their January issue, and in their January Kit of the month. I had planned on buying the kit New Year's Day, but they sold out in record time, so I'm making my own "kit" instead. I've purchased some 12"x12" 4x6 photo pages, and am going to sew the bottom pockets to match the style of page protectors that come in the kit. Then for each week, you just pop in your 4x6 photo from each day, your weekly date card and your daily journaling cards, and you're done. Becky Higgins, creator of the kit, has a free download of some of the kit elements available on her blog, for all the people that didn't get to order a kit. I will probably use some of these templates and print them out here at home, although I might also make some templates up myself...most likely I'll do a combination of the two.

Becky's blog is the best place to look for more ideas and inspiration related to Project 365, as well as ideas for alternative approaches to the project.

I'll be posting more details and samples from my album in coming weeks. For now, here are a couple of the pictures I'll be including from this month:



















Look for another post in the next day or two with a general life update.