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
- Paper Coterie
- WorldWin Papers
- Therm O Web
- Studio Calico
- Tim Holtz
- Sweet Shoppe Designs
- Simon Says Stamp
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.
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What a day this has been Ali. So very different from last years WITL, in a good way and crazy way. The kids being home ALL DAY has made it hard to write and take pictures like I wanted. Some sibling fighting going on too. I’m exhausted and ready for bed and it’s only 7:15. Still so happy and excited though to have this REAL life documented for us. Thanks and I hope you had a good day.
I kinda feel the same Dawn – totally different experience
Thanks Ali, glad to see your day was kinda the same. Makes me feel better. Tomorrow going to be more crazy since I babysit my 2 little cousins all day. Hope yours is a great day tomorrow
I’m leaving on holidays in two days so this week is so not normal. However I hope to do a week later in August and I know I will be totally inspired by what I’ve seen.
Love the data sheets for the week! Thank you! Made it so easy to start today.
This is my first year doing this and I am excited about it… My husband leaves in a few days for his second deployment to Afghanistan so it will be nice to document our last few days together before he goes. I am sure that our boys will love to look at this album while he is gone.
Thanks Ali for pushing us to document our lives, tell our story and journal about the important things and the everyday moments in our lives!
Excited to get started on this project, took many pics this morning of my roses…This is a neat project, thanks
Starting with a bang and so happy that I’ve almost gotten this entire first day documented with words and photos. Just collecting info for now, but looking forward to see how the week unfolds. Thanks, Ali, for being our inspiring leader through this wonderful journey!
What a great week to record–lots of fun things going on. Today a concert rehearsal, tomorrow I teach a class, Wed. I get my outer moved, Thursday a play day and meetings, Friday a haircut and a party. By Saturday, I should be exhausted! But I will have had a grand time!
I am so excited for this week. I’m a little overwhelmed, however. I took 53 photos today. And, I could have taken 253! I think I need to slow down a bit just go with what feels right. Not try to capture every moment.
Thanks for the inspiration and a guide to follow. I can’t wait for this process. We’re going on vacation with my parents for three of these days, so that will make it extra special.
I was so excited to start this morning!! I forgot to catch a couple of the things we did today, but I did manage lots and lots of photos, so I know I captured enough.
I have a question… I am using the baseball card protectors for my pages – so I was wondering if you just resize your photos to fit this size before you print them? I figure that’s what I will do, but I was curious to know what you did…
I do both Meredith – sometimes I just print them 4×6 and crop them as I cut and other times I will crop them in photoshop and print them to size.
Ali, I would love to do Week in the Life and use your digital products, but am so confused about how to use them! I particularly like your word art but have no idea where to start with all this. I have PSE and can edit photos but am lost when it comes to layers etc. Is there a quick how-to guide you can refer me to? Please help
Hi Kylie – I’ve got a nice group of links on my Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking page here: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/getting-started-digital-scrapbooking.html
Thanks so much for your response Ali. I’m only new to your site, and this is exactly what I was looking for!
Thank you Ali!! This is my first time! The week will be very exciting.:D
Thanks so much for coaching us along, Ali. It is great sharing this with others that are participating. Everyone has such great ideas!!
Working on Day 2! Just wanted to say a BIG THANKS to Paper Coterie! Love you guys!!!
Hi!
This is great.. I have recently begun posting week-end pics on my blog nice to see there is a community here that you have created. I would love to join in.
Thanks and have a great day
Karen
I am doing this and having a blast recording what is going on in my life this week. Thank you for coming up with this.