Week In The Life 2011 | Monday & Big Picture Classes Community Partnership

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Welcome to Week In The Life 2011.

Each day this week I'll be posting my photos and words for the day (it may just be scans of my Daily Sheets for the words). Because I'm doing this right along with you, I'll post my Monday photos tomorrow morning and so on throughout the week. Next week I'll share my process for bringing all the content together into an album.

As you embark today here's a couple things I encourage you to keep in mind:



  • Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. There's no right or wrong way to approach this project. You might be doing in-depth documentation or you might be doing a single photo each day or something in between. When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed just take a deep breath and keep moving forward. My goal is less to get every little detail and more to simply create a picture of what seven days in a row of our lives look like right now. Some days I may have a ton of photos and other days just a few - and it all works out.


  • Your story is important. No matter who you are, what you do, your family structure, etc - the story you are living right now is important and worth documenting. I'm one of those people who totally wishes I had this sort of documentation before we had kids, when I was in college, etc. Life situations change so quickly and the things you think are part of your "normal" right now may not be all too soon.


  • Have fun with this project - it's such a great opportunity to see the basic details of your life through the lens of your camera. Use your camera as your eyes this week - shoot those things you see regularly that you notice (or maybe don't take the time to notice most of the time).


  • If at all possible just focus on the content gathering this week. I've had the most success with this project when I've separated the two steps - one week for content gathering and one week for bringing it all together in a completed album.


  • No stress. Take it one day at a time. I tend to start off really strong and taper as the week progresses. I am totally fine with that. I'd much rather have a couple solid days and a few lighter days than nothing at all.



WEEK IN THE LIFE COMMUNITY AT BIG PICTURE CLASSES


My cool announcement for the day is that I've teamed up with Big Picture Classes to offer a FREE Week In The Life Community classroom. The community includes message boards and galleries (daily + completed projects) for sharing your project - all in one place. Click here to join the Week In The Life Community.


WEEK IN THE LIFE GIVEAWAY


Don't miss the big Week In The Life giveaway happening here.

I also want to take a minute to say thank you to the 2011 Title Sponsors. You'll see them highlighted in each of my posts this week - I truly appreciate their support of this project and hope you'll have a chance to click over and show them some support! Title Sponsors for 2011 include



TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | PAPER COTERIE
Join us in celebrating Begin Anywhere Month at Paper Coterie. Featuring our inspiring chat with NY Times bestselling author, Kelly Corrigan about documenting ordinary moments. Also enter to win signed copies of Kelly's book Lift. As our gift to you, please enjoy $40 to spend during August by entering the code: BEGINANYWHERE. Shipping is not included. Code is valid August 1-31.
SHOP | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

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88 thoughts

  1. Week In The Life 2011 | Really Awesome Giveaway | Ali Edwards says…
    07/25/2011

    [...] help celebrate the 2011 Week In The Life I’m excited to bring you a wonderfully awesome collection of sponsored [...]

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. dawn says…
    07/25/2011

    Doing a HAPPY DANCE this morning, so excited to finally start. Thank you for all the words of encouragement. Even this being my second time I'm still a little nervous. The community at BPS is going strong and awesome already, so glad you could do this for us.

    Thank you to all the sponsors helping Ali and to make this week even more fun for us.

    Happy first day Ali and to everyone, enjoy it!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. Maria says…
    07/25/2011

    My day begun seven hours ago so I'm halfway through my first day. Haven't had time to think about to put it all together in the end but I'll think of something.

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. linda says…
    07/25/2011

    Thanks for reminding me that my story is important - when you are 59 years old no grandkids yet that there is still a story here.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Pam says…
      07/25/2011

      I can relate, Linda. I didn't become a grandma until I was 65 years old. She was worth the wait.

  5. Hannie says…
    07/25/2011

    I've started making notes using my google documents. Not uploading those photos yet, 'cos no matter what, I still need to go to a photo shop to get them processes.

    Reply 0 Replies
  6. Diane says…
    07/25/2011

    Oh Yea! I'm ready to roll. I am on vacation so this is going to be a fun one! Hard to pick photos.
    Lots of family and friends around.
    Thanks for doing this Ali

    Reply 0 Replies
  7. Beth says…
    07/25/2011

    Thank you for inspiring all of us to document our lives! I've only been doing this for 3 hours, but already having tons of fun!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. MaryAnn says…
    07/25/2011

    What is awesome about me is I try to make each moment count, by living life to the fullest. I read Kelly's first book, "The Middle Place" it was fun, full of emotion and I am looking forward to reading "Lift". Hoping I win this so I can. Looking forward to this year's "Week in the Life".

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. Ellie A. says…
    07/25/2011

    I really am looking forward to this week. I actually started on Saturday and its fun to be able to see what we been doing in detail throughout the day.

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. Rosalie says…
    07/25/2011

    Excited to be starting this today. I considered starting yesterday, since it is the first day to the week, but needed a little more inspiration. I'm heading over to BPS to join in the fun.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Nancy McPeak says…
    07/25/2011

    So excited to start a week in the life. Should be interesting cause life is kinda hard right now AND I have never done anything like this before. Hope it gets me back into scrapbooking - I have been so engrossed in photography that my scrapbook room is growing cobwebs!

    Over to check out Paper Coterie. Thanks so much for the great give away!

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. marlene says…
    07/25/2011

    i'm looking forward to doing this too. i've been doing December Daily for 3 years and never this one so i thought i'd give it a go :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. Lucy :) says…
    07/25/2011

    I'm in too - it's only lunchtime Monday but I'm enjoying this already :)
    Will see how I go by the end of the week!

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Crystal aka Caitlynsmommy says…
    07/25/2011

    I am going already, been up for about 4 hours already. Set alarm on cell phone to snap picture. I am having a hard time getting pictures of DD without her looking right at the camera, the little stinkpot LOL!

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. peggy says…
    07/25/2011

    This is my first time, I'm really nervous but I'm excited too. Thank you Ali for all the inspiration!

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Roberta says…
    07/25/2011

    I'm a newbie and I also woke up early and got out of bed and grabbed my camers...DH thinks I'm nuts...lol Love all the excitement ;)

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Jacenda G. says…
    07/25/2011

    Just getting started and I'm so excited to see how the whole week turns out and my perspective on it! Gathered everything, charged everything and listed a bunch of ideas! Have fun everyone!

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Suzanne says…
    07/25/2011

    So excited to be doing this for the first time! My two beautifl little daughters and I are on vacaion this week so it should be extra special to document our time!!
    thank you Ali you are awesome!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. borcherding says…
    07/25/2011

    Awesome stuff already and it's only Monday!! So excited and I've taken a good amount of pictures so far and it's only 9am. WOOHOO!! Also, thank you BPS for the community! LOVE IT!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  20. Jen Demmon says…
    07/25/2011

    4th year of doing this. Already have my first picture of the day. Excited to make this week happen. I love looking back at our previous weeks.

    Thanks for the inspiration and motivation! Bring it on!

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Jessica B says…
    07/25/2011

    At first, I was feeling so overwhelmed by attempting to do this and everything else I have going on this week. Now, I'm excited to document the craziness of the week, even if it only makes it to my blog for documentation.

    Thank you for the encouragement and ideas! I love when my wheels start spinning.

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. Cresta Woodruff says…
    07/25/2011

    This is my first year of doing this. Really excited. My birthday is this week and I am celebrating all week long with different people and fun little events. It will be a fun way to remember all of the things that happen as I start into a new year! Thanks Ali!

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. Denise says…
    07/25/2011

    I'm going to write things in a small notebook. The photos will be printed later. This week is a busy week. I get to go to CKC and generally life is busy, so I'll have plenty to document. I need to journal more, so here it is.

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. Colleen says…
    07/25/2011

    Going to try and play with this project this week and not put too much stress on myself about it! Love all these posts you've had about all this! Thanks for the reminders about making it easy and making it whatever you want as well!

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. Sharon in California says…
    07/25/2011

    Wow - this is incredible....so excited about documenting this week!!
    Let the "everyday" be documented...

    Reply 0 Replies

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