One Little Word
Ali Edwards is kicking off One Little Word for 2011. This is a way of picking a theme for your year to ponder over, grown in, think on, etc., and the years that I have participated have been great growing seasons in whatever area I set aside. In conjunction with this is a new class that she has developed and I was gifted this by my sister for Christmas. It's a series of 12 monthly prompts and creative projects to remind us of our word that we chose and to give yourself pause to see where you are with it and how it's being reflected in your life. My word that I have chosen for 2011 is serve. More on this later...
Gratitude Journal
Monika at I Love it All has put together several posts walking you through the project setting up a gratitude journal for 2011. The girls and I are going to do something similar for school starting in January and, while our journals aren't as scrappy as Monika's (or as cute!), they will have the handwriting of my oldest two girls (ages 7 and almost 5) and myself and that will make them memorable. I have been blessed by Ann Voskamp's recording of journaling the endless gifts that God has bestowed upon her and that was the impetus that brought about starting these thankful journals with the girls. Ann has also turned her thoughts on this into a book
that I can't wait to read. And this post of her's on The Year of Here. Goes hand and hand with what I have been thinking with my serve theme. And not a little bit convicting.
Nature Study
The girls and I are going to attempt to add an afternoon of nature study into our week as the weather permits. I am going to be using Harmony Art Mom's Winter Series Outdoor Hour Challenges Ebook. As part of this study, we also have 3 different artists to study - one per month (Caspar David Friedrich, Gilbert Stuart, and Claude Monet), and 3 different composers to study (Vivaldi, Waldteufel, and Dvorak). I am not a "nature girl" as Noelle likes to call herself, preferring instead the indoors (air conditioning or fire depending on the season), a book, and diet coke, so I am sure I will appreciate all the help.
Project Life for 2011
I know I said I wasn't going to do at 365 photo-a-day project this year. But then, I started looking back through my 2010 album and I'm back in again. It is so wonderful to have these little snippets of our life. I wish I had been better about journaling closer to the time the picture was taken, but I've still got these precious memories recorded. You can click the button below for more information about Project Life and the great resources that Becky offers (both her products and just general blog inspiration).
2010 has been a good year for me creatively and I'm looking forward to new projects in 2011!
I'm sure I'll think of something else once I hit post. But, it's a start. : )
Oh, I hadn't heard of Project Life. I'm not really a scrapbooker, but I'm always looking for ways to better record/preserve every day life and this looks like something I might be able to handle...
ReplyDeleteI have Ann Voskamp's book on my Kindle -- SO good.
Hi Steph!
ReplyDeleteYour creative posts always inspire me! I tried BH's Project 365 a few years ago and made it to March, I think. I saw that now she has a digital component and I was wondering if you've used anything like it before. I know you digi-scrap some, and I wondered if you could tell me a good way to learn how. I thought it might be a good way for me to actually get some scrappin' done!
Thanks!
a nature study sounds fun and I like that a little "culture" is thrown in...yippee for a fun, new year!
ReplyDeleteAmy: I have not played with her digital book, but I’ve made a digital photo album on Shutterfly and I believe it’s very similar. They provide the template and you just drop your photo in and type up the journaling. The Shutterfly one is EASY.
ReplyDeleteAs far as any other digi scrapping I do, I have been using Photoshop. Truthfully, it’s a really expensive program that I have barely scratched the surface of. The only reason I have it is that my Dad takes professional pics and has loaded a copy of the software on my machine. There is a less expensive Photoshop Elements that you can use and I have used in the past – again it does so many things that I barely know how to do. I really need to look into taking a Photoshop class (Jessica Sprague’s website has a few I think) and learn what I’m doing. : )
Anyway, if you are interested in doing the digi version of the album, I would totally suggest playing on Shutterfly to start with since it’s free. And actually, now that I think about it, I think you can play with Becky Higgins digi program for free as well. You just have to pay when you actually buy the album.
I’d be happy to try and answer any questions, but know that I am NO expert. : ) I have watched several little video tutorials on blogs like Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske’s sites and that have helped me through more than a few stumbles that I have had!