December Daily 2010

This year I am doing Ali Edward's Daily December project.  It is an album documenting the 25 days leading up to Christmas day capturing everyday life and holiday traditions.  I attempted this same project last year and quickly fell behind.  One of the secrets to the albums success is to putting it together before the month of December; something I did not do last year and quickly became overwhelmed. 

This year I started my album in October and it is complete waiting for me to start documenting tomorrow.  I am really excited about this album and wanted to share the bare bones with you as well as the finished pages as I go through the month.  (My goal is to post every few days.) 

Here is the album cover.  I am going to add some sort of embellishment, just haven't found the perfect one yet. 

Intro page.

Page One.   

Page Two.

Page Three. 

Page Four.

Page Five. 

Page Six. 

Page Seven. 

Page Eight. 

Page Nine. 

Page Twelve. 

Page Thirteen. 

Page Fourteen.

Page Sixteen. 

Page Ninteen. 

Page Twenty. 

Page Twenty-One. 

Page Twenty-three. 

Page Twenty-four. 

Christmas Day.

You may have noticed some days were missing.  I am planning on using full-sized photos for those pages and adding random items in as I go along.  Something you will see in my furture posts regarding this album.

Products Used:

BoBunny Bare Chipboard Album 9 x9 (cut down)

Paper Line:  Canvas Corp Kraft

Chipboard Letters & Numbers

Making Memories Cranberry Red Paint

Thickers

Ali Edwards 31 Days Overlays

Ali Edwards Christmas Boxes, Brushes & Stamps

Baseball card page protectors (cut down)

Office Report Covers

Being Thankful

Today was Braden's Thanksgiving Program at school.  Every year the kids sing festive songs and we enjoy a Thanksgiving feast afterwards.  Last year Braden sat on the bottom step with his thumb in his month the entire time.

And this year....he was quite comical.  I am sure there were parents who didn't see it the same way I did, but I must admit I couldn't help to laugh at him.  Being his mother, I know it is a huge challenge for him to stand still more than two minutes.  He has a short attention span and if he is not interested, he is just not interested and there is nothing you can do about it.  He spent more time chewing on his shirt sleeve and playing with his pilgrim hat than anything else.  

Most of the time, I was giggling to myself and thinking about how thankful I am to have this little guy in my life.. 

Finally, a song he wanted to sing!

She's dedicated

We often refer to Brynn as 'our little artist'. She is constantly drawing pictures, coloring or creating some sort of craft with whatever supplies available to her. Obviously having the same hobby, I love this about her.

Today she was home from school with a stomach bug. We were up most of the night making frequent runs to the restroom. Early this morning, she decided she wanted to stay in the bathroom to be closer to the toilet. When I brought her a pillow and blanket, she requested a bag of crayons, paper and glue instead!

files, files everywhere

The past few weeks I have been working on establishing an efficient filing system for the photos on my computer. Talk about a huge task and an extremely draining process.

It all began in the year 2000 when Danny bought me my first point-n-shoot digital camera. It was the beginning of my first digital filing system and over the years, new systems were created, dumped and created again. I did realized through the process my real problem began in 2005 after Brynn was born and receiving my first Digital SLR camera. No longer fighting the shutter delay, with a point-n-shoot camera I was able to capture every moment as it happened. And from the looks of the mad chaos on my computer, I did. I managed to capture well over 50,000 photos and saved them all too multiple external hard drives.

Over the years, I have adapted different filing systems and uses of computer programs to locate my digital files, but have never been 100% happy with my methods. Well, I think I am finally there and guess what? It is back to basics. I decided to go back to the very first method I used, before all the fancy computer programs and tagging systems.

It looks like this:

Folder for the year: 2010
Inside that folder, a folder for each month: October
Inside that folder, a folder for each event with the date: 10.31.10_Halloween

*Pictures that do not relate to a specific event will stay inside the monthly folder with the date taken and short description. 10.31.10_Braden in car.

Simple.

I am not completely finished with this process, but I am excited to get it accomplished. I think the most important thing I have learned while tackling this mess is I need to learn to hit the DELETE button once in awhile. We do not need 100 pictures of the local pumpkin patch where we the spent the afternoon one fall day each year, I am sure 20 or so will do. ;o)