What do 168 consecutive hours of your life look like?
YOU CAN DO THIS.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes to send you on your way:
And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfillment in being ordinary. For the joys that last have little relationship to achievement, to standing one step higher on the victory platform. What is the adventure in being ordinary? It is daring to love just for the pleasure of giving it away. It is venturing to give new life and to nurture it to maturity. It is working hard for the pure joy of being tired at the end of the day. It is caring and sharing and giving and loving…
Marilyn Thomsen
I invite you to simply take a deep breath and enjoy the process. Capture those little things that you pass by everyday or those little bits of life that really do make up your everyday existence.
I also encourage you to approach this project with what I call the past perspective. Think about what you wish you knew about your parents, grandparents, etc and document those things – simple routines, thoughts, feelings, the hours of ordinary life. Let those thoughts be your guide this week as you document your own daily life.
FLICKR GROUP : Want to share your images and project? Join and upload to the Week In The Life 2010 Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/weeekinthelife2010/
Look for a very special giveaway post coming today at noon Pacific.
![Two Peas](http://www.avantlink.com/gbi/10513/24901/21775/26723/image.jpg"width="120"height="240"style="border:0px;"alt=)
Good luck all “a week in the life” project participants! I’m looking forward to seeing the results of all your hard work!!
I am open to discover that what I think is important may truly be insignificant. I am open to documenting time. I am open to looking through my lens and seeing life move forward.
I did this project at CKU in Chicago. I was looking through it last night.
Here’s some of my advise for people:
Really, really just document the ordinary stuff. It will change so fast. My girls were 2 & 4. Now those two little girls are in school every day and I have one more at home with me.
Don’t crop all the pictures, the stuff in the background means more 4 years later than it did then.
Document, document, document. You can put this album all together a year from now if you need to as long as you have written stuff down.
Write down your day hour by hour. Sounds boring but I wish I had done that last time. What time was nap time? What did I do during that time? Etc.
This is an awesome project that really does mean more a few years down the road.
Thanks for starting us with an inspiring post Ali. I will copy that and put it on the front page of my album. I like Sara’s advise too, thanks Sara. I’m going to record hour by hour so I can really remember what this week was for us. I can’t remember my kids nap times either or what I did. They are 20,13,11,8 now and it goes by so fast. Have fun everybody.
Yay and Wow! I’m along for the ride from Australia! Can’t wait to see my ‘extraordinary ordinary existence’ unfold this week, LIFE IS GREAT- we should celebrate and record it all! Lissa.
Looking foreward to this week for a long time. I’ve just made the decision to keep it simple.
I love that line about the joy of working hard to be tired at the end of the day, it’s so true. Thanks for such a great project Ali, have a great week!
I do have one question, would you mind sharing what lens you use when you are documenting the everyday moments? I would love to know. Thank you!
oh ali!! this will be the first time i’ve ever done anything like this. usually i just do 12x 12 ages… i’m so excited! i don’t know if i’ll ever finish it now that i’ve started, but here goes n9othing! thanks for your inspiration to be better!
Lauren in SA
This is going to be a lot of fun!
Thanks so much Ali, for reminding us over and over that EVERY day matters! Let the fabulousness of today begin!!!
Thank you, Sara, for your insight! Love your tips.
Good luck, everyone!
Good morning Ali and all my fellow “Week in the Lifers”! So excited that this project has finally begun and I’m going to work hard to keep up with it. Thanks for the inspiring quote- I think I may put that on the inside cover of my album. I’m going to attempt this project using Stacey Julian’s “Photo Album Scrapbooking technique”. I have a 2 up album that holds 104 photos, so I figure I have about 14 slots to fill each day with photos and words. Trying to keep this very simple because I have a 10 week old baby and I work full time. I’m planning on sending a camera with him to the babysitter to capture his day at least once and I’ve gotten my husband to agree to take it to work once too ( hopefully he’ll actually use it). I think this will take some of the pressure off of me and give a more well-rounded picture of a week in my family’s life. The baby gets baptized this Sunday, so it will be a nice way to finish up the week. I really really hope I can keep up with this for the whole week. Good luck everyone!
I love doing week in the life!
I am not sure I will follow along
this time, but I just did it in Sept.
and did “a day in the life” in march!
I may just do a few days for fun.
I never seem to do enough journaling
when I do this project, have to work on
that part of it!
but it’s one of my most fave things to do!
You are such an encouragement, inspiration and joy!
tara
I haven’t paper scrapped in months. I am using this to get my creativity back. I did it in 08 and love looking back on it.
I have been SO excited to start this project and its already 5pm in Dubai and I have been scribbling away all day and talking photos. This is the first time tackling this project, so thanks so much for all the info Ali, and the tips from others. Sometimes its hard to know exactly what to record! Have a GREAT week everyone; off to make a list of all the websites and blogs I have visited today.
I had my sonake my photo this morning before leaving for the day—I will do that every day this week.
Thanks for the quote—I’ll be using that too!
How exiting, I will start today! I just took a picture of my morning coffee!
hi ali, i’ve done one week already using your past template. and i can’t wait to get started again for another week. i so love the process. and so love that quote. thanks for the inspiration and mostly the encouragement to start such a fabulous project.
francesca
Well I’ve started! I’m so excited for this project. I have a ton of notes so far but only about 6 pictures. I am so so loving the idea of getting the little details of our routine down. As monotonous as it seems at times to me, I would love to be able to look back and see what my mom’s routine was when I was a child.
Here we go! How great to start a Monday with something to look forward to and so many great women working on the same project right along with me – talk about motivation!
I’m excited to do this. I have taken lots of pictures and scrapbooked lots of pages but this is different for me. It just feels different. As my oldest just turned 18 and is heading off to University in the fall, I am dumbfounded by how quickly the time goes and how many details are lost. So this is as much for me as it is for my family.
I’ve watched along on your blog in years past but never jumped in to do this. Not this year! I started getting ready this weekend. And I started out well this morning – even set the camera on self-timer next to me in the car at a stoplight!
I’ll be using a kit my friend gave me called “Simple Stories” by Memory Works. It has premade journaling cards, title blocks, etc that fit perfectly into different sized divided page protectors. I think it will fit great with this project! No turning back now since I already made the title page
I’m in! I’ve done a 30 days album with Stacy J. Hopefully I’ll post to my blog in addition to the paper version.
I plan to start next Tuesday and go for a week. Looks like it will be a lot of fun and hope I land up with a treasured album of this one week in my life. Will there be any templates offered for inspiration?
hi. are we going to have a flickr group for this like we do for the december daily? would love to see all of our work.
Ready, set, go! I have already been snapping pictures & documenting since 6AM!!! So excited about this project & guess what??? My teenage sons are “playing along” with me…Love those guys
) See a bit more of my PLAN & thoughts on “a week in the life” on my blog…
Thanks for the inspiration Ali!
I’m in, but I’ll start tomorrow. I’m very excited about this project:)Good luck for all of you!
Hi Ali,
I think I am in. It’s a busy week but should be lots of fun documentation. One Question for you though….Do you make a template for printing the 2×3 photos you are going to use in the trading card page? Can you share that template so that those of us who are printing at home on a 8.5 x 11 printer can get a number of photos on it.
TIA
Took my camera with me on my morning walk with my dog Ernie (who is use to having his photo taken – LOTS):-)Now to jot down some notes… Happy Week everyone ♥
thanks for your continued inspiration!! I love both of my previous albums (CKU Chicago and CKU Detroit) . . looking forward to doing it again this year. Off to a great start this morning : )
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Let the week begin. And the week in my life 
i love this project. and i told myself that i was going to do this. i know that i can do this. i know that i need to do this. i haven’t scrapped or been creative in anyway in several months – but that is going to stop here… i do have one question – where do you get those baseball card page protectors i would totally have some to complete this project. thx again for the wonderful inspiration ali. and have a great day! smiles, m-
I finally did this project last fall with my young, busy family – and LOVED the process – it was the first time I have ever scrapped what is happening NOW as opposed to “catching up” with the years gone by. I can’t join in this week, but I will again – and will use the ideas of all you guys when I do! Thanks for giving us the idea for this wonderful documentation of our own little (incredible) story!
Good Morning Ali! Thanks for all your suggestions on preparing for A Week in the Life. Love this project. This is my 2nd time doing it and as I reviewed my last one it affirmed to me that this is such a wonderful memory for my family, now and future generations. Already journaled and taken lots of pictures this morning. What a fun way to start Monday!
Great quote!
I also started this morning….not how I intended since my son woke up with an irritated eye and is staying home, but I’m still going forward.
I have no clue yet how I’ll be putting it all together, but I will be documenting this week.
Thanks Ali!
Hi Ann,
I just discovered a how-to for the divided page protector photos from the week in the life 2008 the other day. Have a look: http://www.aliedwards.com/2008/10/week-in-the-l-9.html
Finally the day is here! I have been taking photos and jotting down in my notebook all day. I can’t wait to assemble it all in a scrapbook. Thank you so much for the inspiration to do this!
I’m SO excited to finally be taking part in this. I’m excited about the process of documenting my life for the week. It always seems like time is flying by, this way I can grab on and hold onto some of it.
I am sooooo excited. One of the first things I did this morning was stop by your blog and discovered the quote you left for us to read!!!! I don’t have kids and my life is sort of humdrum but I’m on spring vacation from school (I teach) and this has inspired me to do MORE than just sleep in every day…tee hee! Can’t wait to see everyone’s books.
QUESTION: Is there a central place where we can all post our layouts to share? I was thinking of posting my layouts at Designer Digitals?
xoxox Sue
This is my first. This part is the fun and easy part. Mine is a 71 year old view point.
I should have put the camera on my nightstand as I went to bed last night, because I woke up EXCITED to start this project, and wishing I could have caught the wakeup routine. Good thing I have 6 more wakeups to capture.
Thanks, Ali, for the inspiration.
From the moment I committed to myself to do this project I’ve been thinking – planning – from the past perspective, asking myself what little ordinary things my 3-year-old grandaughter will enjoy knowing about Ammie & Andad when she is a teenager, thirtysomething and a grandmother herself. It is a persepctive I wish I had of my own grandma and what makes this project so special.
Love this quote!!! It really resonates with me, as I work full-time and wonder “How will I document the seeming sameness of the workaday world.” I carefully photographed different parts of my commute this morning, including my unexpected stop at Discount Tire, as my WEEK IN THE LIFE started with a flat!
I think I am going to work that quote onto my Title Page. I love you Ali Edwards! Three Cheers for the Documenting Society!
pennyscraps
This week is always incredibly inspiring! Thanks, Ali!
Yes – forgot to add this to this post. Here’s the Flickr group: http://bit.ly/9XcLGz?r=td
Hi Mary – I actually found mine this time at Toys R Us (totally random by the baseball cards). You can also find them at office supply stores like Office Max or Staples.
I am really excited about this. I am posting pictures to my fan page on facebook (www.facebook.com/themomcreative) and am using a combo of Webster’s Pages paper and plain cardstock for my album.
I started taking my photos this morning. I’m doing mine digital so I picked up your templates too. Thanks for making this project do-able.
I think the quote would make a great opening page for this album/mini-book. Thanks!!
WAHOO!! SO glad to get this started!! I’ve been chomping at the bit all weekend!!LOL