Monday, January 9, 2012

Word of the Month

I'm up today with a Word of the Month post over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles.  The word that kept coming back to me when considering this post was Grow.  You can read a little more about how that came to be in today's SEM post.  The way I'm focusing on growth this month is through my scrapping.  I've come to understand something over the past few weeks about the way I scrap.  The whole reason I scrap is to document our family's memories in a fun and creative way.  I want my children, and hopefully even their children one day, to be able to look back and see the way we lived life as they were growing up.  I want them to be able to recall with detail the things that happened within our family.  What I've come to realize, however, is that I don't often scrap the everyday things about our life.  If you were to look through my albums you would see a lot of events.  Things like first time away at camp for each of them, music recitals, dance recitals, Christmas, ski vacations, birthday parties, and other such events.  There are not a whole lot of pages that document the every day goings on of our family.  Things like breakfast around the table, the drives to and from activities, the 'just hanging out with friends', the time outs, the hugs and kisses at the end of the day, and other such activities.  All the things I count as direct blessings from the Lord, somehow go missed in my effort to capture the 'events'.  This month, I want to grow in the way I chose to document our life.  It's not always a party around here, that's for certain, and I want my albums to reflect that.  I want to leave an honest all encompassing documentation of our life.  Albums where my kids remember the good, the not so good, and everything in between of growing up in our home.  I have no doubt this album, our Moments In Between album, will help us all to see how truly blessed we are.  From the fact that they are likely not wearing the same outfit from one page to the next, to the fact that they have many people in their lives who love and care about them, to the fact that every night they rest their head on a comfy pillow in a warm bed within the walls of a beautiful home.  WE count each one of these as tremendous blessings.  I hope to create albums where we are able to remember and reflect on these simple things just as much as all the events that will have help enriched their young lives.  The everyday things will take just as high of a standing as far as photos goes.  My Moments In Between album will be a year long, intentional attempt to remember the everyday blessings in our family's life.  This is very much the same idea as Project 365, Month In The Life, and Project Life that have all been very much talked about in the past few weeks in and around the scrappy world.  I thought I would give my album a new name, however.  I just wanted to personalize it for me, and help give the understanding to my family of what exactly the point of the camera coming out a lot more often was.  It's all in an attempt to capture the realness of our lives.  I'm hopeful that I can keep up with this.  I'm really trying not to over think it, and just snap away.  What I'm not so sure on is the actual layout of the album, it's all so new to me.  I've not purchased any of the pre-made resources that would likely speed up the 'getting it all in an album' part.  I've been looking around on the more popular sites/store and most things are sold out.  For now I've grabbed myself a package of page protectors, a couple of sheets of paper with pre-made journaling cards, and that's it.  I'm hoping to learn from other bloggers out there tips that work best for them, and what products they find the most useful.  If you've got any, please link me up in the comments section.  I'd love to hear them.  For now I'll share with you my title page and a handful of photos from week number one.  I'm going to try documenting a week (on two pages) at a time to begin with. if once a week turns out to be too much, I may change it up to once a month.

Here is my title page
I used Crate Paper Random collection, with some Studio Calico, and a few random items from my stash. 
some details shots
The butterflies are actually placed on the outside of the page protector
again the butterfly is on the outside
same thing with this chipboard banner

Here are the photos that will be making their way into Week One.  They are a combination of Canon Rebel shots and iPhone: Camera+, Instamatic, and my 365 apps.
I hope you take a moment to hop over the the SEM site and inspire others with your thoughts on the Word of The Month.  As always I am very grateful that you've taken the time to pop by my corner of the wold today.

Hope your day is a great one!

♥ S.

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6 comments:

xoxo... t said...

Your title page is great, so glad you are taking the leap with this project, you won't regret it!

Alex said...

What a beautiful an precious idea Sherri! I am sure your family is going to love it!

Unknown said...

What a great idea, capturing the in between moments. I love your title page, it flows so nicely.

Kimber-Leigh said...

i love the idea of a word of the month! your PL title page is gorgeous!!!

Aussie TM5 Thermomixer said...

You are off to a flying start with your project, Sherri! I love this layout so much and loving that grid of photos too. You are inspiring me so much....I can feel the urge to get creative coming on alot sooner than I thought!

Also, have you entered a layout for the current Get Picky challenge? You've linked yourself up, but I can't seem to find it...if you can point it out I will leave you some love :)

cheers
Tanya

Tiffany Heard said...

You did a wonderful job! I'm sure your children will look at all your pages and feel incredibly blessed. :)