Week in the Life 2011 - Finished Album

Cover Page

I want to say I've finally finished my Week in the Life 2011 album, but given it took me until 2011 to finish my 2010 album I think I'm a bit ahead of the game this year ;) In any case. I'm super happy it's done. I always enjoy doing it, but also tire a little of the process by the end so having it wrapped up and seeing the final pages all together is awesome.

I stuck with the general design I mentioned here with one larger photo/daily story on the left hand side, the grid collage of photos on the right hand side and a baseball card sheet in the middle containing more stuff. Compared to last year, I took more photos and kept less "stuff" from the week, so the middle sheet is mostly photos with a few bits of daily life, like receipts, and then filled in with additional paper and embellishments. I kind of like this better, as I have such a hard time picking photos - always seems as though I like each one as much as the one before! 

To keep the process really simple as I put it all together, I just picked a few pieces of coordinating paper, a handful of embellishments and a few paper punches and then took it all away from my usual scrapbooking area, putting the album together elsewhere (living room, my mom's house, dining room, etc). This way, I wasn't tempted to go find the "perfect" add on and just went with what I had. Way quicker, way easier than my usual process. Loved that.

As I pulled it together I found some "problems" - I had sized the journaling cards wrong for middle sheet, cut a few pictures uneven, stuck something in the "wrong" place and couldn't move it, etc. Normally I would have tried to redo it the way I had planned, but for this album I went with it. I just trimmed the journaling cards down, which meant the lines around the edge were gone. I added a strip of extra paper to the edge of a photo. And so on. My theory: No one else will ever know (well of course you know now cause I told you, but you know what I mean). My husband won't notice (or care). When Hudson gets older, he won't notice (or care). My mom looked at it before the extra embellishments were on the pages and she didn't notice (or care). What's important is that the stories are there, not that it's not perfect.

Now that it's all together, I am happy and ready to move on to something else. I'm ready to look back at it with a smile. I'm ready to share it with my family. And with you. Enjoy:

MONDAY

 TUESDAY 

WEDNESDAY

postcard we received from our niece who's away for the summer in NY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

And there you have it folks - another week in our lives. Thanks for looking!

and that's a wrap!

Week in the Life 2011 Comes Together

Wow. It is awesome to look back on a full week of photos. I captured the ordinary and the extraordinary. The routine and the unusual. I see lives intertwined. I see relationships. I see {love}. Each picture holds many stories. There are the stories that are obvious, the what-you-see-is-what-you-get story. There are stories that are subtle, the behind-the-scenes story. There are probably stories that will even go untold in this particular album because time and space create limitations. For those stories, I'll print doubles, make notes and tell them another time. Right now, I'm focusing on pulling together the photos and words that will tell the story of our life from July 25-31, 2011. And I'm happy as can be with that.

My 2011 album is in progress. I decided not to go with Ali's templates this time around. While I loved having those last time and loved, loved, loved the way the 2010 album came together, it was also somewhat of a hindrance for me. It was partly why I didn't get the 2010 album finally clued up until 2011. I first had to learn to use the digital templates, as I'm more of a traditional scrapbooker - I like my paper and scissors and tape. So that took some time. Though, part of why I went with the templates last year was to learn more about using digital templates and that was a success. {Thank you Ali for your tutorials} Then, I wanted to use similar supplies, not all of which were available here in my corner of the world. So I had to wait for them to arrive by mail by which time other projects and priorities crept in. By which time my motivation was waning. So, this year, I decided to do my own thing, keep it simple and get those stories told.

Right now, my craft space looks a little like a tornado of paper and photos blew through:

of course no scrapbooking is complete without some dark chocolate, assuming you can find it amongst the mess!

Right now I'm working with one larger photo, the day/date and overall story on the left hand side of the page, something like this:

And then, on the right hand side of the page, I'm using a simple grid design to hold a few other fave photos and paper, something like this:

These pages still need some embellishments and such to finish them up. In between each of these daily spreads there will also be a baseball card protector holding more photos, ephemera, shorter stories, paper scraps and so on. I don't have any of those pulled together yet, but they will look like what you saw in the 2010 album.

My hope is that the use of white space, repeated design and a limited few papers and embellishments will create unity, make this easy and stress free. Hopefully next week, I'll have more to share.

Week in the Life - the Weekend Review

I finished capturing our Week in the Life 2011 in photos yesterday. Now it's getting some of those (hundreds!) of images into an album along with the words to tell a more complete story of our life Right Now. In the meantime, here are a few of the photos from our weekend lens:

The Ryan Trio

Fresh Faced Friday

He does this when he's sleepy - back of hands rubbing eyes, so cute

Saturday morning paper + coffee = bliss

Mama's little man

Old becomes new again ... mama's first dishes passed on the Hudson

Vroom Vroom!!

Uncle Des showed him how to make spoons into car ramps ... how else would you pass time between dinner & dessert?

Like father, like son

He refused to nap, so I took him on a walk. He fell asleep :)

Splish Splash I was takin' a bath!

Stay tuned to see the final album come together (hopefully well before 2012!). In the meantime, I hope your last week wrapped up nicely and wish you an awesome week ahead. Happy Monday!

Week In The Life 2011 - Wed & Thurs

I'm still enjoying capturing a week in our life this year and reflecting on how wonderfully different it is from the last time I did it. If you missed my Monday and Tuesday recap, check it out here. And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few of my favorite snaps from Wednesday and Thursday:

More morning smiles - really the best way to start any day!

I love how this picture shows my perspective while driving- always glancing back to check on those sweet cheeks

A successful trip to the grocery store

A quick lunch before heading off to our playdate
 (I have cute pics of the playdate too, but not sharing here as I didn't ask permission of the other mamas!)

mmm breakfast

One of our many ways to play - he's a bit of a narcissist really ;)

More cuddles and playtime

I think it's important to capture the ordinary along the extraordinary parts of our everyday 

Hudson is just (barely) figuring out the jolly jumper, he mostly likes to just hang there

Happy when he realizes it's daddy taking him out of the car - after daddy being gone for a couple of days



paper goodness from the Paperie

new recipe ...  kale chips ... recipe will be shared next week

sweet sleepy boy

Hope your week is shaping up nicely too.

Week in the Life

You may recall I wrote about finally finishing my 2010 Week in the Life album here ... and even though it took me until 2011 to complete, I'm so glad to have it. Already looking back at it shows how so much can change in so little time - uhm baby anyone?

This week, I'm again joining Ali Edwards in documenting a Week in the Life 2011. I'm not sure I'm going to use the digital templates this go around ... maybe, maybe not. I'm also not sure I'm going to focus on the time theme she's chosen throughout, maybe on one or two days. Overall, I just plan to capture what life looks like for us Right Now.

So far, a few of my favorite photos from the last couple of days that show our everyday life around here are:

Love that I finally need sunscreen after many rainy days

Nothing like those `good morning`smiles as I peer in over the crib

Daddy and boy, enjoying a snack break in the sun

I can`t get enough of those baby blues!

So typical - walking and working at the same time

Enjoying some fro-yo with fresh strawberries for dessert, on the deck in the sun to boot!

Hanging out back with the fam, enjoying the boys first fire in the pit

All smiles for the diaper change, holding Sophie tight

What mornings look like around here these days: boy plays on his beloved bee mat while mama sits close by
enjoying a coffee, checking emails and of course chatting with him

Enjoying some tummy time and building up those arm muscles for crawling

At Bowring Park for a hike with a bunch of other mamas and babes

Reading time (note the naked babe and fan nearby, it was a hot afternoon!)

And for fear someone think I have an ever-pleasant child, here`s the typical `Feed Me Now` face

Of course, those are just a few snaps out of the hundreds taken over the last few days, but they give a good look at the everyday around here Right Now.

What does your everyday look like?